


Nobody Listens to a Beta

by notaguitarfret



Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:16:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 43,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24774508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notaguitarfret/pseuds/notaguitarfret
Summary: Veronica Sawyer did not like being a beta. She was pushed around by alphas, and dismissed by omegas. It sucked, everything sucked, and it made her underpaid job as a barista no more bearable.And no amount of incredibly attractive alphas or a particularly gorgeous omega was going to change that disdain, no matter how many butterflies they gave her.
Relationships: Heather Chandler/Heather Duke, Heather Chandler/Heather Duke/Heather McNamara/Veronica Sawyer, Heather Chandler/Heather McNamara, Heather Chandler/Veronica Sawyer, Heather Duke/Heather McNamara, Heather Duke/Veronica Sawyer, Heather McNamara/Veronica Sawyer, Jason "J. D." Dean & Veronica Sawyer, Martha Dunnstock/Betty Finn
Comments: 87
Kudos: 450





	1. Chapter 1 - Your Perfume Is Bearable

**Author's Note:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS: men being pushy and vaguely threatening, being general trash

Alphas were so fucking annoying.

Why, why,  _ why _ did alphas feel so entitled to  _ everything? _ Every fucking day on her shift, she’d give a customer their coffee order, turn to the register and say the phrase, “Who’s next?” and her heart would fall into a pit of dread amongst catching an incredibly strong whiff of an alpha’s scent. If it were a  _ regular _ scent, just a scent being carried over the counter from a draft, she’d be fine, but  _ no. _ Some fucking alphas just  _ loved _ to amplify their scents and boast about their status, so when some middle aged woman wearing far too much expensive jewelry was standing next in line Veronica had to force a smile and ask for her order as best she could whilst holding her breath, because  _ God _ scent amplifiers smelled bad. Then, predictably, the alpha would ask for a long, convoluted coffee order, then be shocked and appalled when Veronica had to break it to her that they were out of unsweetened almond milk, but is sweetened okay?

Sometimes she’d get screamed at. On a good day they’d throw their drink which apparently had too much or too little cream in it (despite them not clarifying how much they wanted) because at least then she could escape her post and take a damn break in the bathroom while cleaning herself up. On the worst days, some alphas - usually older men - would have the audacity to lean over the counter to catch her scent.

“I wouldn’t run your mouth so much,  _ beta. _ ”

Yeah, well, this beta was going to get you your double-shot espresso, but I guess you’ll have to go to your savvy business job half asleep now, sir.

And unfortunately for Veronica, she often got the worst of the abuse, even when it wasn’t aimed at her. Her co-worker, Martha, who also happened to occupy the dorm next to hers, was an omega, and you didn’t have to sniff her to figure that out. That sounds incredibly closed-minded of her, she knew, but the poor girl was too sweet and unfortunately a  _ doormat _ to be viewed as anything else. Alpha’s comments would suddenly become a lot more gross and explicit, and Veronica wouldn’t stand for it.

Today, a customer, who also just so happened to be a student at their college, and his buddy had came to order something plain, and while Martha turned around to get it ready for him, Veronica had heard him joke to his friend,

“So how many alphas go for your lard-ass?”

Veronica needed this job to pay off her student debt, so spinning around to confront the dickhead, who his friend had called ‘Ram’, was probably a bad idea for her financial stability. However, Veronica also liked to think she was a good person, so whatever, let the injustices of Capitalism consume her if it mean storming over to him and saying,

“Not many omegas will be coming after you after I pour this boiling hot water on your rutted-out dick.” She’d held up a steaming cup of water when saying that, which made her threat a lot more effective. Ram had bared his teeth at her - poor guy, his fangs were hardly that sharp at all - but he said nothing. His  _ friend, _ however, stepped forward.

“Yo, where’s your manager?” He leaned forward a little and inhaled. Gross. “ _ Beta? _ ”

“Why should I fetch her?” Admittedly, Veronica was backing down a little now, placing the cup on the counter (out of either of their reach).

“You just threatened a customer, dude,” his friend said. “So where’s your manager?”

“You gonna answer? My buddy Kurt asked you a question,” Ram said, leering at her. Veronica grimaced, giving one last look to Martha, who looked helplessly back at her. Sighing in defeat, Veronica stalked off to go fetch Pauline, and snarled to herself when she heard the two alpha-dicks high-five each other proudly. She knew they weren’t actually offended or scared for their safety like they would claim, they just wanted to win, one up the barista beta, just like every other goddamn alpha.

This wasn’t the first ‘incident’ so to speak - her manager was used to this behaviour from her. But as Veronica was in fact, a good employee and made excellent coffee, she let it slide yet again, though she would have to stay behind and lock up after doing the cleaning. Fuck’s sake.

“Maybe they shouldn’t have made a gross comment about one of your employees,  _ Pauline. _ ”

Pauline sighed. “I’m not saying they should have, I’m just saying… threatening to burn their… um,  _ parts _ off was a little extreme, don’t you think?”

“No.”

Pauline pinched the bridge of her nose and gave a fed up sigh, before leaving Veronica and Martha to their shift. A few hours went by, and their shifts ended, however this time Veronica had to leave Martha to walk back to her dorm alone so she could clean up.

“I’m sorry about all of this,” Martha said guiltily, but Veronica dismissed her apology immediately.

“It isn’t your fault. Alphas are just so…  _ entitled. _ ”

“Not  _ all _ alphas.”

“You know what I mean, Martha.”

Giving a slow nod, she gave one last goodbye, then left Veronica alone in the store. She preferred to work in low light, so she didn’t mind only one light being on, just enough to see the coffee stains on the counters and tables. She hurried washing down each surface, not caring if she didn’t clean everything until it sparkled, because she was getting paid $9 per hour. She was on the second-to-last table, when she heard the dreaded sound of a bell being pushed by an opening door. Wincing, she turned around to look at whoever was standing there, and was met with a short, blonde and pretty woman around her age, one side of her hair buzzed with the rest of it dyed blonde.

“Sorry, we’re closed,” she said, managing to summon a sweet tone purely because the woman was nice to look at.

“Oh, really?” Her smile dropped into a disappointed one, and it was then did Veronica catch her scent. It was strong, mixed with the scent of honey and jasmines, likely her perfume being carried by her natural smell.

Oh, she was an alpha, Veronica realised.

“It says on the door.” She pointed to the ‘we’re open’ sign, facing towards them rather than outside. The woman’s head turned and read it, and she gave a chuckle to herself.

“Oh, that’s my mistake, then, sorry.” She ran her fingers through her hair, brushing some of it out of her face. “I don’t suppose…” She gazed longingly at the coffee machines that Veronica, who groaned.

“ _ No. _ ” She realised she’d been wiping the same table for way longer than needed, so she stopped and turned towards her. “My shift’s technically over - I’m just about to lock up.” She quickly rubbed her cloth over the final table, then dumped the cleaning equipment in a cupboard just behind the counter.

“Oh… you’re leaving now?” Something changed in the woman’s demeanour, and Veronica saw her glancing outside the window nervously. “Uh, are you driving?”

Veronica raised a brow skeptically at the strange change in questions. “No,” she said. “I’m walking. My dorm is just a few streets down, it’s ten minutes.”

The woman grimaced at her. “Okay, um, how do I put this…” She twiddled her thumbs. “There’s a single car in the parking lot, and two guys are hanging around it and talking about ‘catching a barista alone’, and I wanted to see if I could stall you long enough until they got bored and drove off.”

Veronica stared at her, a little taken aback. She dropped her keys on the counter, anxiety suddenly spiking.

“Two guys, you say?” she questioned cautiously. “Both brown hair? Heavily built? Did you catch their scents by any chance?”

“No, I was walking from quite a distance, it’s just really quiet out there so I could hear their conversation. But… yeah, that’s what they looked like.”

“You don’t say,” Veronica grumbled.

The woman, meanwhile, rocked back and forth on her feet. “Say, where do you live?”

“On Dunder Street.”

“I can walk with you,” she said. “I think we might live in the same building.”

“Block B?”

“Yeah!”

“Oh.” On one hand, Veronica didn’t even know this girl’s name, and even though she knew the whole coffee charade was, well,  _ a charade, _ it had still left a bad taste in her mouth. Also, she was very much opposed to accepting invitations from strangers.

On the other hand, she did not want to get jumped or harassed by two bitter customers.

“I’d appreciate that, thank you.” She took her apron off and grabbed her coat, pulling out a can of scent blockers and spraying herself down. The woman looked at her curiously.

“What’s that for?"

“I never go walking at night with my scent on display,” Veronica explained. “And I’ve been working for eight hours, so I’m gonna have a fair amount of sweat, not to be TMI.”

“No, that’s okay, and completely fair,” she replied. “What’s your status, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Beta. You’re an alpha, I presume,” Veronica said.

“How did you know?”

“I can smell it.”

“From all the way over there?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry, you smell nowhere near as bad as half the alphas I serve, including those two doofuses outside.” Veronica walked over to her so she could keep by her side, though she still kept a fair distance.

“Implying I still smell bad,” she said, giving herself a sniff. Veronica stifled a snicker.

“No, honestly, you smell fine.” Veronica opened the door and let her go through first, before locking it up as quickly as she could.

“Okay, now let’s hurry,” the woman said. “Maybe then they won’t notice us.”

Veronica severely doubted that. The parking lot was right next to the coffee shop, and in order to get on the right path to her building, she would  _ have _ to walk past it. Still, she kept up with the blonde’s quick pace in an attempt to escape unnoticed, but typical Veronica just  _ had _ to look over to the parking lot to see if they were in the clear.

Instead, she made eye contact with two figures making their way towards her.

“Fuck, they’re coming,” Veronica whispered harshly, instinctively huddling a little closer to the woman. “Should we run?”

“No! Then we’ll sweat and they’ll be able to track our fear scents, and then,  _ boom, _ they’ll know where you live,” she whispered back with an eye roll. “We need to be smart about this.”

“Like what?”

She hummed thoughtfully. “Well, we  _ could _ do that method foxes do in the wild when being chased, where they criss-cross over the same path to mix up their scent and confuse the chaser as to which direction they went.” She looked around the empty town. “How good of a runner are you?”

“I have asthma.”

“Oh no.”

Interrupting them came a wolf-whistle, and the two of them stopped in their tracks. They slowly turned around, and Veronica came face to face with none other than Rurt and Kam or whatever their names were.

“Hey, pretty ladies!” Ram called, stopping not too far away from them. “You, barista girl, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot.”

Veronica snarled at him. “Yeah, we did.”

“I was hoping we could make it up to you.” Ram stepped closer, until Veronica could smell him again. It was no better than before, in fact, she was pretty sure it now had a hint of booze mixed in. “We were thinking, for a beta, you’re pretty hot, and it’s been a while since we’ve gotten a snatch like you. We’re a two-membered pack, you see.” He nodded to Kurt. “Don’t suppose you’ve been looking for any way to get off recently?”

“I’m not interested,” Veronica spat, baring her fangs. “My standards are high enough to not let me have a pair of rats hump me until they’re satisfied.”

Ram’s gaze darkened, and he opened his mouth to fire back, when the woman standing by Veronica’s side stepped between them.

“What she  _ means _ to say is,” she began, and already that phrase made her cringe. “She’s already taken.”

“By who? And you are?” Ram looked her up and down.

“By  _ me. _ She’s in my pack, so I suggest you back off.”

“Aw, what?” Ram whined. “That’s bullshit.”

“Wait.” Kurt stepped forward, placing a hand in front of Ram and deeply inhaled. “I don’t smell you on her.”

Panic struck Veronica, and it seemed to do the same for this woman, since she visibly tensed up. So, Veronica decided to speak up.

“I’ve been working all day, and I’m wearing scent blockers, dipshit.” That was actually true, and she had the gadget to show it. Holding it up seemed to convince them, since they both shot the blonde a warning glare.

“You expect us to know this when you let her wear scent blockers?” Kurt growled. “You could at least scent her  _ over _ the scent blockers.”

“That is if you  _ are _ her alpha,” Ram then accused, narrowing his gaze at her. The blonde took a step back, clearly at a loss, then looked back at Veronica, who undoubtedly looked just as nervous. She then shot her an apologetic look, before walking to her side.

“If it’ll make you leave her alone,” she said, placing a hand on Veronica’s shoulder to get her to bend down. Realising what was happening, Veronica tried to relax herself as she felt a complete stranger rub her cheek against her scent glands, trying to make it look as convincing as possible. After a few seconds, she let Veronica go, and they both looked back to the pair with hope.

“Okay,  _ fine, _ take her,” Kurt grumbled. “But you should seriously teach her some manners.”

“No one needs to teach me anythi-”

“Thanks, I will,” the woman cut her off, before turning around and nudging for Veronica to begin walking, Occasionally she’d look behind them both, checking that Kurt and Ram were definitely leaving, and as soon as they got in their car and drove off, they were able to finally pause and take a breather.

“Sorry,” the woman said. “I wasn’t sure what else to do.”

Veronica shrugged, rubbing her palm against the side of her neck, where much of the woman’s scent still lingered. “It’s fine, it worked.” She took her hand and gave it a sniff - it smelled just like the scent she’d picked up when she’d first walked through the door back at the shop. At least it wasn’t a bad scent. “Well, I guess since we’ve shared scents, I should also ask you your name.”

“Oh! My name’s Heather,” Heather replied. “Heather McNamara.” She chuckled nervously. “Sorry, I’m not very good at remembering how to interact with people in the right order.

“Neither am I,” Veronica replied. “And I’m Veronica - Sawyer, since we’re giving out second names for some reason.”

“Oh, it’s a habit,” Heather said. “I have two pack members with the same name as me.”

“Seriously?” Veronica chuckled at that. “Doesn’t that get confusing?”

“Not really. I’m used to it.” She then turned towards the road ahead of them. “Should we keep walking?”

“Probably.”

And so they did, the distance between them noticeably smaller than it was before. Maybe because Veronica already had her scent lingering on her, so there was no point in trying to avoid it now.

“Do you have a pack?” Heather eventually spoke up again.

“No,” Veronica said. “I have a friend group, but we’re not a pack. The only person who really scents me is my roommate, and he usually just does it out of courtesy.”

“Ah.” A brief pause. “What do you study?”

“Hm? Oh, Forensic Psychology and Criminology,” she replied. “What about you?”

“PE.”   


“Ew, gross.”

“What? I wanna be a personal trainer.”

“Couldn’t be me.”

Heather just laughed. It was a sweet giggle, so Veronica didn’t mind in the slightest.

Apparently their conversation made time fly by much quicker than her Spotify playlist, which mainly consisted of My Chemical Romance and Green Day, because before they knew it, they were standing outside their building.

“What floor are you on?” Heather asked.

“Third.”

“Oh! Me too!” She did a little bounce, and Veronica had to admit, she was cute. For an alpha.

“Then we’ll probably see each other around,” Veronica said as they waited for the elevator.

“I imagine so,” Heather agreed. “Maybe you can meet my pack.”

“Are they all like you?” Veronica asked. “Are you the only alpha?”

“Oh, no. Heather’s the Alpha - Alpha with a capital A.”

“That’s a shame,” Veronica said. “I wouldn’t mind having you as a pack leader.”

Heather just giggled in disbelief. “I appreciate that, but I’m not the best leader around.”

“No, but you’re quick on your feet,” Veronica said.

“I have to be, I do PE.”

“I mean, you’re a quick thinker,” Veronica said, putting together the small details she’d seen this woman present in the past twenty minutes or so. “This may be a strange parting question, but are you on the spectrum?”

Heather blinked, a little surprised, but regardless, she replied honestly. “Yeah. Why?”

“Same hat,” Veronica said, and when Heather gave a confused look, Veronica sighed. “I mean,  _ me too. _ It’s a meme - don’t worry about it.”

“Oh! I’m not really down with the latest memes,” Heather said with a chuckle, and as they stepped out of the elevator and into the hallway. “Which way is your…”

“Oh, down here.” Veronica pointed to her left.

“I’m down here,” Heather pointed to her right. “I’ll see you sometime?”

“Yeah,” Veronica said, rubbing the side of her neck. “See you.” They parted ways, but just before Veronica turned the corner, she looked back to Heather and called, “Don’t forget to wash my scent off!”

“Oh! Thanks, but my packmates won’t mind it being there!” Heather replied, giving her a friendly smile before disappearing behind the corner. Veronica did the same, fumbling with her lock after realising just how exhausted she was and trudging into the small, yet homey room she and her roommate had laid out nicely with a bit of teamwork. Speaking of which.

“You’re kinda late!” Her one and only roommate was splayed across the couch, a bowl of popcorn on his chest (and stray cornels scattered around it) as he busied himself with watching some Netflix show. When Veronica looked at the TV, her lip curled in disgust at what was on the screen.

“Are you  _ actually _ watching  _ Love is Blind? _ ” Veronica asked, throwing her coat onto one of the pegs on the wall, though not before she stole her phone from its pocket, slipping her shoes off and shoving JD’s legs onto the floor so she could sit.

“Yes,” he declared, sitting up. “Popcorn?”

“I’m good, thanks.” Out of pure curiosity, she turned her attention to the awful, awful hetero bullshit JD was subjecting her to. “Is… is she crying over him?”

“Yep.”

“How long has she known this guy?”

“For like, a day.”

“Why do you watch this trash?”

“It’s funny.” She heard him sniff. “Why do you smell funny?”

“Huh?”

JD slid along the couch and leaned in to get a better whiff of her. In retaliation, Veronica shoved him away.

“Freakass,” she grunted, while JD just eyed her up and down curiously, a grin on his face.

“Are you  _ scented? _ ” he asked, snickering. “By someone who  _ isn’t _ me?”

Veronica forced herself to stare at the screen, as much torture as this show was, she would rather watch some heteros sob over people they’ve known for twenty four hours max than to face the stupid grin JD was probably holding.

“It’s a long story.”

“A long story I am  _ here _ for.”

Veronica groaned, but decided to entertain him - right after she went and microwaved a hot pocket and grabbed some ice cold water. JD had paused his hetero show, ready to hear all about her day, and so Veronica gave him exactly what he wanted.

And whilst she was retelling it, she stubbornly stood by her statement.

Alpha’s were so fucking annoying.

But Heather… Heather could be an exception, she thought. She dared not to say that out loud, though.  _ Especially _ not when JD asked why she had yet to wash her scent off. Instead, she replied with,

“She has nice perfume.”

Because it wasn’t exactly a lie, now, was it?


	2. Chapter 2 - A Little Tied Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica let's JD drag her to a frat party, for some fucking reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> roses are red  
> veronica gets fucked  
> there's sex in this chapter  
> so keep your heads up

“Why does the frat party have to be in _our_ block?” Veronica groaned, watching her cereal pour into her bowl. “Some of us have _classes._ ”

“Oh, lighten up, it could be fun,” JD said, eating his cold, leftover pizza. “Not that you have much choice as I’m dragging you with me.”

“Why can’t you go on your own?”

“What’s an omega without his dear old beta buddy?” he said with a pout. “You know I couldn’t possibly go all by myself.”

Veronica rolled her eyes disdainfully. “You know as well as I do that omegas aren’t inherently clingy - that’s a myth.”

“I know, but I’m gonna take advantage of it.” He walked across the small kitchen and leaned forward, only to be pushed away.

“No. No scenting. Not when your breath smells of a fucking _meat feast._ ” She grabbed the last spoon that wasn’t waiting in the dishwasher and dug into her cereal. JD just snickered.

“Like you _don’t_ want a meat feast of some sort, Veronica.”

Veronica eyed him suspiciously. “What makes you say that, _Jason?_ ”

“How long did it take you to wash off Heather’s scent again?”

Veronica rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t mean I want her to shove a fucking knot in me.”

“Then what _does_ it mean?”

“I just haven’t been scented in a while!” she snapped. “Other than you, but you know. I’m used to that.”

“If you miss being scented so much-” he leaned back against the counter, “-then why don’t you go find a pack? We’re in college now, baby, loads of alphas and omegas to pick from.”

Veronica rolled her eyes. “Betas not counted in this?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Not really.” She spun around and dropped her spoon in her bowl, splashes of milk falling onto her hand, but she ignored it. “To me, it sounds like betas are a plan B no matter what. See, it’s even the same fucking letter; every alpha wants to claim and knot an omega, and every omega wants an alpha to push them around and be claimed as their own. Meanwhile, betas are just kind of _there,_ too nice for omegas and too boring for alphas.” She gulped down the rest of her cereal and threw her dishes into the sink. “No wonder I don’t have a pack, because nobody had any use for betas like me.”

Guilt actually formed in JD’s expression. “Okay, sorry,” he said. “I should have used more inclusive language there.”

Veronica sighed. “It’s fine, it’s not your fault.” She bit the inside of her cheek. “And, look, since you went to see _Wicked_ with me over the summer, so I guess I owe you. I’ll go with you to the frat party.” She walked over to him and leaned into his scent glands on the side of his neck, marking him. Whenever they scented, it was never to claim or to show off them being packmates; they weren’t packmates really. They were more just acquaintances who would gladly show each other affection, and scenting each other was more just an act of farewell while they were apart. Veronica found it comforting, but it was never strong enough to linger for the whole day, unfortunately.

“You leaving already?” JD whined, also tossing his now-empty plate into the sink. It was a miracle that it didn’t break.

“Got to. I forgot to charge my phone last night, so I need to get a good spot in the lecture room that has a plug nearby.” She patted him on the shoulder. “See you later.”

“Buy me some Monster on your way back.”

“You literally have classes today - get them yourself.”

“I’m banned from the usual store.”

Veronica groaned as she went to grab her bag from her room. “Did you get caught shoplifting again?” she called.

“I didn’t mean to! The chocolate fell out of my sleeve.”

“JD, you constantly live up to the stereotype of omegas being stupid and helpless.” She returned to their living room (which was also their kitchen; their dorm wasn’t exactly big enough for many walls) with her bag over her shoulders, ready to go. She checked she definitely had her keys, phone charger and of course, phone, and once that was all confirmed, she hurried out the door while saying one last goodbye to JD. Already two minutes behind schedule, she quickened her walking pace and ran into the elevator that was just about to close, inches away from slamming into the poor person that had stepped inside already.

Luckily for her, it was a familiar face.

“Veronica!” Heather chirped happily. “How was your weekend?”

“Hi, Heather,” she greeted. “Nothing too eventful. Had another shift, then had to endure JD making me sit through the entirety of _Love is Blind_ on Netflix. I do not recommend it.”

Heather let out a groan amongst hearing the title. “Oh no, Heather’s been watching that,” she said. “I haven’t watched a whole episode, but I stayed for half of one and cringed so hard.”

Veronica snickered. “Thoughts?”

“All the men look the same, and everyone is conventionally attractive,” she said. “Doesn’t that defeat the point of the show?”

They stepped out of the elevator together and made their way outside.

“You make a very good point,” she said. “The whole fear of them being disappointed about their spouse’s looks is so dumb.”

“Right!”

They both laughed, and when a brief silence fell on them, the urge to continue the conversation came from Veronica this time.

“So, what did your packmates think of my scent?” Veronica didn’t actually care too much about their opinions on her - they hadn’t even met her - but regardless, she was curious.

“They accused me of courting someone new,” Heather said with an eye roll. “Not in a ‘you’re a cheater’ way, it was more they were asking me all about you, even after I told them the context behind the scenting.”

Veronica snorted. “Wow, sounds like a fun time.”

It was then that Veronica picked up something different from Heather’s scent. Along with her sweet smell that reminded her of the honey she’d pour into people’s coffee at her job, she got a scent that was also sweet, yet a lot more _bold._ She recognised it as cherries accenting the very obvious scent of another alpha, along with another scent with a sharp singe to it. The luring scent of an omega with a hint of wild berries and mint. It didn’t take Veronica half a second to figure out she’d recently been scented by her two other packmates, and she hoped Heather was grateful that they were definitely pleasant smells.

“Are you going to that frat party this Wednesday, by the way?” Heather asked. Veronica gave an exasperated sigh.

“Unfortunately. My roomie wants to go, and he doesn’t like going alone, so I’m gonna tag along.”

“Why doesn’t he wanna go alone?”

“He’s an omega.” She shrugged. “He doesn’t want any alphas to get too handsy with him. I may be a beta, but I can at least act like he’s been claimed so people will leave him alone.”

“That’s a pretty good plan,” Heather commented. “Well, I’m gonna be there too - so will Heather and Heather, so you might bump into us!” She then stopped just where the pathways split off into three different directions. “I’ll see you there, maybe?”

The thought did in fact ease Veronica a little, and she gave a grateful smile. “I hope so.” She glanced at the path that went in the opposite direction to her building. “Are you going that way?”

“Yeah. Are you going that way?” She pointed to her path, and Veronica nodded. “Well, have fun! I’ll see you later, Veronica.”

“Bye, Heather.”

Though she immediately turned to start walking down her path, she did end up sneaking a few glances behind her, watching Heather leave to what she presumed was some sort of gym lesson or whatever PE students did. She assumed that due to the outfit she was wearing, along with the bag that was clearly for clothes and not books or a laptop. Particularly her shorts, because, well… goddamn, she hadn’t noticed how fucking built she was in the dark the other night - her calve muscles were certainly _something._

She then snapped her gaze away, instead looking at her phone. Shit, now she was five minutes behind? How did that happen?

 _Enough staring at some alpha’s muscles, Veronica, your phone is on 15% and needs charging,_ she told herself, speed walking the rest of the way. As her lecture was first thing in the morning, she didn’t need to wait for a previous class to leave, so she was able to hurry in and steal one of the last spots next to a plug. Thank God. Her phone began to charge and she brought her laptop out onto the desk as the rest of her class came sludging in, sleep weighing down their gazes. Usually she’d be the same, especially since she hadn’t gotten a chance to burn her mouth with coffee this morning, but it seems Heather’s chippiness had rubbed off on her, because she started making notes as soon as the professor started speaking.

There were downsides though, because as the lecture went on, the side of her neck itched a little, coincidentally every time her mind wandered back to Heather, often the muscles she saw, and the muscles she had yet to see. Yet to see? She likely wouldn’t see them. At one point, she took her hand off her neck and sniffed it subtly, and was surprised to catch a faint, lingering scent that matched Heather’s clinging onto her for dear life. Fuck, had she been walking that close to her that her scent had passed onto her?

She tried not to think about it too much, instead turning her focus to her lecture. It wasn’t a particularly interesting one, mainly just stuff she already knew from her hyperfixations with neuroscience, so at least she wasn’t missing too much whenever her mind wandered to Heather, which was happening more than she’d like to admit.

When the clock neared the end of the lecture, Veronica decided to look through her notifications, and found some unread messages from JD, as well as from her group chat. She opened up JD’s first.

_8:45_

**jughead dean:** hey sweetie dont forget that monster on ur way back xoxo

 **jughead dean:** OMG WHO IS THAT

 **jughead dean:** veronica is that heather

 **jughead dean:** veronica i can see u out da window i know what’s up

_9:10_

**jughead dean:** ok but she had such a lesbian haircut tho. go get her u whore i believe in u <3

Veronica tutted at the messages, typing back a,

_10:55_

**veronica lodge:** she agrees that love is blind is shit xoxo

Not a few seconds later, her phone screen lit up.

_10:56_

**jughead dean:** shes an alpha who cares about her opinion.

Holding back a snicker in the very quiet lecture room, Veronica went to check her group chat messages.

_9:34_

**jughead dean:** veronica’s in her class, i can finally tell yall she’s fucking.

 **betty cooper:** owo

 **Didn’t watch riverdale:** When??? What???? What happened???

 **jughead dean:** well martha i’m talking predictions here. hasn’t happened yet but i’m just saying we should probably buy her a strap at some point.

 **betty cooper:** who tf is she seeing i want all the details.

 **jughead dean:** some bitch scented her the other night to get two assholes to leave her alone and then she didn’t wash the scent away until right at bedtime lmaooo what a fucking omega amiright

 **Didn’t watch riverdale:** JD you’re an omega :/

 **jughead dean:** ya and i’m clingy af <3

 **betty cooper:** i’m an omega and i could kick ur ass

 **jughead dean:** uh oh whore galore

 **betty cooper:** stfu slut

 **jughead dean:** i think veronica is the new slut now

 **betty cooper:** omg queen we stan an absolute harlot <3333

Veronica deadpanned at her phone, and just as everyone stood up and started packing their things, she quickly typed a message.

_11:01_

**veronica lodge:** jd fuck you, we’re changing the riverdale theme this is the last straw.

She packed her things quickly and made her escape, and as soon as she escaped the crowded lecture room, she glanced at her phone again, seeing that JD had already replied.

 **jughead dean:** :( she’s awake, funs over

 **veronica lodge:** don’t play with fate, i’m the one getting your monster

 **betty cooper:** VERONICA

 **betty cooper:** ARE YOU REALLY SEEING SOMEONE

Veronica groaned at her phone, shoving her earphones in and replying with one last message before blasting a G chord in her ear.

 **veronica lodge:** you wish <3

  
  


* * *

_“Veronicaaaaaa.”_

Veronica groaned, pressing her face more into her nest of pillows. It failed to block out the music thumping from the floor below her, though.

_“Veronicaaaaaaaaaaa.”_

“Okay, okay.” Veronica stretched out with a long winded groan, her bones clicking as she did. It pained her to leave the comfort of her own nest all for what she knew would be a night full of sensory hell, with shoulders grazing against her constantly and lights strobing and scents from horny alphas and omegas blocking her nostrils, but at least she’d get some alcohol out of it. “I still don’t understand why you wanna go, I didn’t think parties were your thing.”

“Free alcohol and alphas scenting me for fun, duh,” JD said, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of bed. Lucky for Veronica she was already dressed for the occasion, though her makeup could use some redoing after her face had been squashed into a pillow, and sure enough, there were black smears on the fabric. She’d gotten ready a couple hours prior whilst waiting for JD to return from his engineering class, then had gotten bored of waiting so had crashed on her bed completely by accident. Definitely not in hopes that JD may take pity on her and ditch the party idea. It seems that wasn’t the case, as he pulled her to her vanity, (im)patiently waited for her to fix her makeup and immediately pulled her out of their dorm, where they came very close to bumping into Betty Finn, next door neighbour and designated squad member.

“Betty!” JD cheered.

“Hello!” she greeted. “I likely won’t stay for too long - Martha doesn’t want to go and I don’t like to leave her alone in her nest for too long. She gets lonely.”

Veronica frowned. “I thought you needed me to come because you didn’t want to go alone.” She glared at JD, who sheepishly grinned.

“Better to take a beta so alphas don’t get _too_ clingy.”

“Betty might as well be an alpha though.” Veronica rolled her eyes. “Whatever, guess we’re a temporary pack, until an alpha flirts with JD and he fucks right off, that is.”

“Who knows, maybe today will be the day Veronica does exactly that,” Betty said, leaning on Veronica’s shoulder and batting her lashes. Veronica rolled her eyes and pushed her off.

“I doubt that.”

“Will Heather be there?” Betty then asked, and Veronica glared at her. Betty just grinned. “Is that a yes?”

“...Maybe,” she said.

“That means yes.”

“Okay, she’s gonna be there,” Veronica groaned, feeling the floor rumbling more under her feet with each step they took down the stairs. They’d take the elevator, but she dreaded how crowded it might get with so many people leaving the sanctuaries of their dorms. “But does it matter? She has a pack already, and I’m not interested in the slightest.”

“Sure you aren’t, Ron.”

They reached the floor below them, and as soon as they opened the door and stepped into the corridors, they were met with many huddles of people, mixed with scents that emanated natural scents as well as scent amplifiers, her worst enemy. She also got a whiff of weed as she walked past a bathroom door, and as she closed in on the main room where this party was being hosted, alcohol singed her nostrils.

“You got the mixers?” Veronica asked JD, raising her voice over the music blaring. Now the floor felt like it was shaking under her, and it was uncomfortable, to say the least. JD reached into his trenchcoat (how was he not dying of heat?) and pulled out two cans of Monster, one each.

“You’re both going to die,” Betty pointed out.

“JD might, he drinks a whole cup in one gulp,” Veronica pointed out as they shuffled their way through the crowds of people on a hunt for the alcohol table. Ugh, they had to set this party up in a corner room, didn’t they? Everything was laid out differently to her and JD’s room. It made sense to, since it was slightly bigger, but the kitchen was on a completely different side of the dorm. Thank God she found the table eventually, though, she wasn’t sure how much more of this party she could take sober, and she’d only been there for a couple of minutes.

“I say we mix up a horrible concoction,” Betty declared. “How does vodka, powerade, pink gin, and…. Oh!” She leaned forward and grabbed a small bottle sitting across the table. “Amaretto.”

“Can we add Monster too?” JD asked, opening up his can and letting it hiss.

“Absolutely. Let’s vomit our guts out.”

“Do not, I need to scent the two of you and I’m not doing that when you have vomit on your mouths,” Veronica said, but watched them create a freak of nature in their cups anyway. She decided to be sensible, and poured herself some absolut vodka and some Monster in her cup. “I can smell that from here,” she pointed out as they finished mixing up their monstrosity.

“Maybe scent us now in case we fall down the stairs after this and someone needs to find you to tell you how we died,” Betty said as she took a sip, her face immediately scrunching up as she coughed. “Oh, that’s awful.”

Veronica rolled her eyes as she walked over to her, rubbing her cheek against her neck while holding her breath, as to not inhale the awful scent of her drink, before doing the same to JD. “As bad of an idea it is, my curiosity has gotten the best of me.” She eyed JD’s cup as he took a sip, before he also gagged at the flavour.

“Are you sure you wanna do that?” he asked.

“Yes.” She took hold of the drink, though didn’t take it out of his hands, instead just let him tip a small amount into her mouth.

She immediately regretted it.

“Why do I take either of you anywhere?” She spluttered as soon as she managed to swallow, begging the flavour to leave her tongue. She gulped down several sips of her own much more normal drink, and luckily the vodka muted the awful, awful combination. JD and Betty just laughed.

“You love us,” JD said.

“I’m starting to rethink that sentiment,” Veronica retorted, and was about to take another sip of her drink before she felt a hand nudge her arm, lightly shoving her sideways. Disgruntled, she looked at whoever was pushing her, and immediately caught a somewhat familiar scent that reminded her of cherries and roses, somehow breaking through the clusterfuck of scents being radiated from the sweat of other partygoers.

“Excuse me,” the woman grunted as she waited for Veronica and her friends to step aside. If their bold scent wasn’t already enough, the attitude of ‘I can go wherever I want’ was enough for Veronica to guess that this woman was an alpha. She was a level height to her, with bright red lipstick and loose, curly ginger locks that spilled over her bare shoulders, which noticeably had freckles scattered all over them. Her good looks weren’t enough for Veronica to be forgiving, however.

“Must you touch me?”

The woman snapped her glare towards her, eyeing her up and down. She opened her mouth, ready to argue with her, but Veronica noticed the slight movements of her nostrils that made her pause. She kept her tongue out, resting it between her teeth as she inhaled again, this time leaning closer to Veronica, her warmth scorching the side of Veronica’s neck. Had there not been people standing right behind her, Veronica would have stumbled away, but with nowhere to go, she stayed put as this bitch ended up right under her ear, up until Veronica finally spoke up.

“Can I _help_ you?” she snapped, pushing her away. The woman raised a brow at her.

“Do you know Heather?”

Taken aback, Veronica stammered.

“I… um… Heather McNamara?”

“Yes.”

“Yes?” She gave her a confused look. “I don’t know her very well, I only met her the other day.”

The redhead’s stern expression relaxed. “I thought I recognised your scent.” She cocked her head sideways. “Veronica, right?”

Veronica finally put two and two together. So this was Heather; _Alpha_ Heather. With a capital A.

“Perhaps,” she said, still attempting to keep her distance from her, despite that she had absolutely rubbed her scent onto her anyway. “Are you Heather, by any chance?”

“How’d you guess?” She gave an amused huff, before cocking her head towards her friends, and it was then did Veronica notice her incredibly sharp jawline. So, alphas having any specific physical traits was complete horesshit, but if it wasn’t, then Heather would be walking proof. She looked as though she could crush you with so much as a look. “Are these your packmates?”

Veronica looked to Betty and JD who were watching the interaction calmly.

“No, they’re just friends. I don’t have a pack.” She eyed her suspiciously. “Why are you asking?”

Heather shrugged. “Making small talk.” She then stepped around them. “Sorry for the interruption, but in fairness, you are standing in front of all the drinks, so it might be best you move, beta.”

Her words were patronising, but there was no malice in her tone. Still, Veronica’s lip curled at being called that title, but Betty and JD pulled her away before she could say anything more. They ended up in a corner of the room, miraculously finding a couch to all squeeze onto, with Veronica in the middle. As soon as they sat down, Betty and JD began to laugh.

“It’s not funny,” Veronica said.

“We’re not laughing at you,” Betty said. “Why do alphas feel the need to shove their noses into your scent glands?”

“I wish I knew,” Veronica groaned, taking a swig of her drink. It seems the alcohol was getting to her, or maybe it was sitting between two people on a leather couch, but her skin was growing warmer than usual. “How are neither of you dying of heat, by the way?” She eyed JD’s trenchcoat and Betty’s leather jacket, along with her black tight jeans and black shirt with a big red anarchy symbol splattered over it.

“Because once you experience an actual heat, regular warmth is _nothing,_ ” Betty replied, taking another rueful sip of her drink. “Side note, this is such a _great_ seat for people watching.”

Veronica looked forward, and she was indeed right. From here, she could see everyone dancing and grinding and scenting one another, and for a little while, it was fairly amusing. Soon enough, though, the room simply got too warm for Veronica, and as she could feel her first Monster piss coming on anyway, so she excused herself, though not before checking Betty and JD would be okay on their own, to which they said yes.

“Text me if you need anything,” she told them, before barging through the crowd in search of an unused toilet. Even after she left the dorm, though, she still felt incredibly warm. Maybe chugging the alcohol that fast was a poor idea.

Eventually she found an empty bathroom, where she took the opportunity to relax with how quiet it was in there. She took her phone out and scrolled through Tumblr for a bit, before she became paranoid that maybe some poor soul needed to use the bathroom and was waiting for her door to open. She flushed the toilet and washed her hands, also attempting to cool herself down by splashing some cold water over her face and just below her ears, where it was the hottest. It worked for a brief moment, before the heat returned, this time with a slight itching sensation. Annoyed, she decided to just leave it and hope it would go away on its own, and finally left the sanctuary of the bathroom.

Once in the corridor, she felt her pocket vibrate, and she checked her phone to see that JD had texted her. Apparently, he and Betty had joined a game of beer pong with some other students, though she declined the offer to join in. She could tell she was a little tipsy already, and beer pong required you to actually talk to other people. Also, beer was gross anyway.

She decided to take advantage of this opportunity and pulled her headphones out of her pocket. She found an open door to a dorm with significantly less people in it, and saw a perfect window ledge for her to sit on. Oh, thank God, fresh air. That should help her cool off.

Tucking herself into the window ledge and opening it wide enough for a cool breeze to seep through. It definitely helped a lot more than staying in a crowded room. Placing her earbuds in her ears, she rested her head against the wall behind her and stared at the ground below while _Twin Size Mattress_ played through her earphones. She finally felt relaxed as she gazed out to the dark streets below, street lamps lighting up the concrete and creating pretty contrasts of navies and yellows, and while she knew it would be eerie if she were out there, being safe behind glass suddenly made it beautiful.

Her song was just coming to an end when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She was ready to groan at whoever was interrupting her brief moment of tranquility, but when she turned around and locked eyes with Heather McNamara, she just smiled. She took an earbud out and listened to her speak.

“Hey! I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” she asked sheepishly. Veronica wondered how long she was standing there; she had a bad habit of not listening to anything but her music. Quickly pressing pause, she removed her other earbud and tucked them in her pocket, along with her phone.

“No,” Veronica replied. “Hi.”

“Hello!”

Now that she was no longer eye-level to Heather due to sitting down, Veronica actually took note of her outfit. She wore a simple outfit, a yellow crop top that failed to cover her shoulders and high-waisted jorts, and she cursed her eyes for lingering further down for longer than it should have, because as well as knowing Heather had muscular calves, she now knew she had fucking abs under that denim, as they were peeking just over the rim of her belt.

“I met your Alpha,” Veronica said as Heather pulled up a chair.

“Oh? What do you think of her?”

“Does she know what personal space is?” Veronica rolled her eyes as she itched the side of her neck. Heather grimaced.

“Oh, not really, no,” she said. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine, it just caught me off guard.” She itched the other side of her neck. “How are you? You enjoying the party?”

“Yeah, I am, thanks!” Heather chipped. “I’m a lil’ tipsy, though, so I apologise.”

“Me too, don’t worry.”

“You are? I could hardly tell.”

“My head’s a bit heavy - I’m good at articulating when drunk, though.” She scratched her thigh, and it was then did she pick up on the strong, sweet scent of Heather yet again. Somehow it seemed even stronger than usual, despite the fact that there was a fair amount of space between them - more than there had been with their last few interactions. “What perfume do you use?”

“Hm?” Heather seemed taken aback by the sudden question, and for a moment Veronica assumed that it was a little too weird. Either way, she answered. “Jasmine.” She tilted her head. “What about you?”

“Lavender.”

“I thought so.” She smiled. “It suits you.”

“Thanks.” She rubbed her back against the wall behind her, feeling the slightest itch in that one spot she could never reach, but somehow the hard, grating surface only made it worse. She groaned in frustration, wondering why she felt as though she had a sudden case of hives.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine; ignore me,” Veronica grunted, pulling her grey cardigan off in hopes it would stop feeling so unpleasant against her skin. “Maybe I had an allergic reaction to that fucking drink my friends made.”

She hardly noticed Heather get up to walk over to her, that is until she felt her hand on her bare shoulder. Suddenly the itching there faded, and instead became incredibly sensitive. She bit back a whimper, trying to focus on stopping the itching elsewhere.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Heather asked. “You seem distressed.”

“I am, a little,” Veronica said, not realising she was leaning further into Heather’s touch. “I don’t know why I’m so _itchy._ ”

“Hmm…” Heather hummed. “I have some cream in my dorm, that might help?”

Okay, skincare sounded good. She wordlessly nodded, and followed Heather back out the room and up the stairs again, this time going down to the end of the corridor Veronica hadn’t been to before. Heather held the door open for her, and Veronica stepped into a room that was _vastly_ different to her own. The furniture seemed more expensive, more comfortable, for starters. The couch looked as though it _wasn’t_ found on the sidewalk and was actually recently bought, and everything seemed neat and polished, with several plants on tables, window sills and other surfaces. Most noticeably, on the very comfortable looking couch, was a pile of pillows and blankets fairly messily displayed, yet still forming a circular shape. There were some empty wrappers, as well as unopened soda cans laying just on the outskirts of the blankets.

“Sorry about the mess,” Heather said, glancing at what Veronica could only guess was a nest. “Heather likes to nest when she watches TV.”

“Is this omega Heather?”

“Yeah. Wait there, I’ll see what I have in my room.”

Veronica nodded and watched Heather disappear into her room, already missing her scent being near. She decided to sit on the arm of the couch, and even _that_ was soft against her bare legs. She gazed at the nest for a little while, tempted to tuck herself into the blankets, but she knew doing such a thing would be incredibly rude; nests were supposed to be comforting, especially for omegas, and for her to mix her own scents in with a pack she wasn’t part of would have been awfully invasive. Instead, she focused on trying to scratch away her discomfort, up until Heather finally returned with a tube in her hand.

“I don’t know if this will help,” she said. “Do you know what caused it?”

“No fucking clue,” Veronica grunted, taking the cream and squeezing some onto her hand. She rubbed it into her neck, and while the cold liquid helped the uncomfortable warmth she felt for a brief moment, if anything, it just trapped her sweat against her skin and caused even _more_ discomfort. She let out a whine, not caring how pathetic she may look, and took to a stray chair where she began to rub herself against it in a desperate attempt to soothe herself.

“...I’m taking it didn’t work,” Heather sighed, picking up the cream and cardigan that had fallen off her lap and onto the floor. She put them somewhere beyond Veronica’s concern, then returned to hold her by the shoulders, Veronica unwillingly stopped, but at the very least having hands on her was… pleasant. “Are you going through some sort of… beta equivalent of a heat?”

“Mmm… what makes you say that?”

“I…” Heather bit her lip and swiped at her nose. “You smell a lot different.”

Veronica took a moment to consider what she’d said, and then mentally slapped herself for not picking up on the fact that the whole reason she was feeling ‘warm’ this whole time is because she was getting fucking hot flashes.

“Oh.” She slumped against the back of the chair and whined. “That explains my hot flashes, but I’ve never been so _itchy_ before.” She rubbed her shoulders against the surface of the chair. “Fuck me.”

There was a little hesitance from Heather. “How long do these usually last?”

“A few hours at a time,” she muttered. “God, this is the worst one _yet._ ” She shot Heather an apologetic gaze. “I’m _so_ sorry, we hardly know each other and I’m here writhing in pain in your dorm.” She leaned forward a little. “Maybe I should go back to mine-”

“No! It’s okay, honestly,” Heather reassured her. “I don’t want to leave you all alone like this. Unless you have anyone to take care of you?”

Veronica shrugged. “Martha has done that before, but it’s late and she has a class first thing tomorrow, I don’t want to disturb her.” She resorted to rubbing her face against the back of the chair. “JD and Betty could, but I don’t wanna drag down their night. I imagine they’re having fun. Speaking of which, I should text them and tell them where I am.”

“Oh! Of course.” Heather rushed over to what Veronica assumed was a nearby coat hanger and returned with her phone. No missed calls or new messagers, so no one was in danger. Good. She quickly typed out her current situation, then placed her phone on the coffee table. Letting out a long sigh, she slumped back against the chair, still in pain. “Do you need to lie down, Veronica?” Heather asked, caressing her arm. It felt a lot nicer than it should have.

“I… yeah, I think that’ll help.”

Heather took her hand and Veronica very willingly took it, noting how soft and warm her hand was against her own. Sure, she was already hot and didn’t need any more heat, but somehow it felt nice. After taking her shoes off, she was led to a bedroom, one that smelled very heavily of Heather, and the scent only got stronger the closer she was taken to the bed. Without another word, Veronica launched herself onto it, and was immediately met with the strong scent of Heather encasing her, causing her to rub herself further into the many pillows and blankets she had. Almost immediately the light mattress and soft, velvet pillows soothed the dreadful itching, so she continued to rub herself against every piece of fabric she could find until all that was left was the heat crawling under her skin.

“Any better?”

“Mmmm… so much better,” she sighed, relieved. “Do you sleep here?”

She felt the mattress sink to where Heather was sitting.

“Sometimes,” she said. “Heather prefers us to sleep in her nest; this is just where I keep my belongings so I can give them to her for more nests.”

Veronica grunted. “You’re a nice alpha, Heather.”

“Oh, um… thank you.” Heather’s nose twitched. “I just like making my omega comfortable, is all.”

“Mmm…” Veronica rolled over and lifted herself up onto her arms, then began to crawl across the bed on all fours towards her. “I’m sure you do. I certainly am.”

She leaned forward and inhaled more of Heather’s scent. It was so strong that it stung her nostrils, but it was strangely pleasurable. Her shoulder brushed against Heather’s, and she felt her tense up, snapping her out of whatever the fuck she was doing.

“Fuck, sorry, I’m…” She rubbed her temple. “These hot flashes are getting to me.”

Heather thickly swallowed. “It’s fine, don’t worry.” Veronica noticed her hands were criss-crossed over the middle of her thighs. “I really don’t mind in the slightest, I just, um, I wouldn’t want to do, you know, push you when you’re in this state.” She turned away from her, and Veronica tilted her head to the side.

“I appreciate that a lot,” she murmured. “A lot of alphas wouldn’t give me that chance.” Giving herself a moment to debate her next move, Veronica moved even closer, her nose hovering dangerously close to her scent glands. “But _fuck,_ this heat’s killing me, and I don’t think I wanna wait it out.” Being so close let her pick up on a tang in her scent that she hadn’t noticed before, but it sent a shiver through her body, which was especially refreshing after ages of feeling warm.

“Is this a good time to say that you have smelled really fucking good this whole time but I didn’t want to say anything?” Heather squeaked as Veronica’s cheek brushed against the side of her neck. Veronica purred, scenting Heather and drawing out a whine from her.

“Will your pack be okay with this?” Veronica murmured.

“They fully expected this to happen, so yes,” Heather said, her voice growing quiet as she turned around to face Veronica. Veronica then found herself being lightly pushed back against the plush mattress, purring more at the soft feeling against her skin and the weight of Heather on top of her. She craned her neck up to expose her more sensitive areas, which Heather began to nip. At first it was light, and already it sent shocks of pleasure through Veronica. She groaned, fisting the blankets as the bites got rougher, until finally her teeth found her scent glands and she began to suck. A moan escaped Veronica’s lips, and perhaps she should be embarrassed by how needy she was suddenly being, but she could smell the wanton in Heather’s scent and feel her hand possessively hold her waist while the other brushed her hair away from her neck, and she felt a new kind of aching begin to form between her thighs.

“I’ve never been with a beta before,” Heather commented, a grin spreading on her pink lips. Veronica could see her fangs - oh, they were sharp, and fuck, they’d just been biting her neck, _claiming_ her. “You’re quite interesting.”

“Never used a beta to get off, huh?” Veronica breathlessly laughed as hands ran over her bare stomach. Her skin was _especially_ sensitive, and so she arched into it as another whine escaped her lips.

“Never used anyone to get off,” Heather replied, diving to the other side of Veronica’s neck. Veronica snapped her head to the side embarrassingly fast, but it was worth the shame to feel Heather leave more marks around her scent glands. “You smell _really_ good,” Heather growled against her ear, and Veronica whimpered at her change in tone, though it definitely wasn’t an unwelcome one.

“Mmm… that’s a first,” she breathed. “Didn’t think we smelled of anything.”

“It’s definitely different, but trust me, it’s there,” Heather said with a smirk, her fingers finding the hem of Veronica’s black top. “May I?”

“My clothes are so _uncomfortable,_ ” she complained. “Rip them off for all I care.”

Heather chuckled darkly. “I won’t do that, this top’s really nice.” Her hand stroked her chest. “I like how much of you it shows off.”

“Good for you, but there’s more of me to see without it.” Growing impatient, Veronica sat up slightly and wriggled out of the thing herself, and when she revealed herself to be wearing no bra underneath, she saw something darken in Heather’s gaze. She pushed Veronica down again, this time with more force, and began to leave more marks over her bare chest. In that moment, Veronica felt a need to completely submit, to let this alpha mark her wherever she pleased, because _God_ she needed someone to touch her right now. She was still squirming with a slight discomfort, but only leftover from her hot flashes that were still happening, only now they were being soothed by rough, and still somehow cautious hands gripping her.

“ _Someone’s_ desperate,” Heather teased, and at first Veronica wasn’t sure what she was referring to. She looked down, and her cheeks grew warm in realising she was helplessly grinding on Heather’s thigh, despite how uncomfortable the texture of denim was against her underwear. She simply let out a desperate whine, hands curling under her arms and nails digging into her shoulder blades and scratching at her tanned skin. Heather let out a growl, before gripping the waistband of Veronica’s frilled skirt and dragging it down her legs. The air finally felt cold against her skin now that those layers weren’t grazing against her, though having to wait for Heather to slip her own clothes off, _including_ unbuckling her belt, was _painful._

“Are all betas impatient, or is it just you?” Heather taunted, _finally_ pulling her belt off. Veronica groaned, bucking her hips forward despite knowing nothing was there, because the aching between her legs was becoming more unbearable than her hot flashes. Heather laughed, before eventually slipping off her jorts and her underwear, and in seeing what was underneath, a moan got caught in Veronica’s throat in seeing the length that had been hidden underneath it. It was fully hard already - she hadn’t gotten a chance to grind on her crotch to figure that out, so for this to just be dropped on her was… incredibly arousing.

“Fuck, you’re big,” she squeaked, blinking at Heather’s cock. Heather batted her lashes at her.

“To an alpha, that’s quite a compliment.” She crawled closer, moving slow and predatory like, until the head of her cock grazed Veronica’s vulva. Fuck, she still had underwear on. “So thanks.”

“Care to put it to use?” Veronica whined, hooking her fingers around the waistband of her boxers. “This is fucking torture.”

“Well, I _am_ trying to help you get over this heat,” Heather mused out loud, dragging her boxers down her long legs _far_ too slowly. “Usually I like to tease more, but you’ve gotten me pretty worked up.”

Her boxers were finally off and thrown across the room, leaving Veronica completely exposed. Before she could complain again, Heather gripped her thighs - which felt fucking _amazing_ \- and pushed her legs apart. Without warning, Heather slipped her cock into Veronica, earning a loud moan from her as she felt herself get filled up by the alpha. She held onto Heather’s shoulder blades and wrapped her legs around her waist, while Heather held her by the small of her back as well as her ass, essentially lifting the majority of her weight off the bed as she thrusted roughly into her.

“Fuck, fuck, Heather,” Veronica moaned, eyes rolling back as she felt Heather bite her shoulder to muffle her own heavy panting. Veronica felt her dick rub against her g-spot and she keened, her back arching as waves of pleasure flooded through her body. Every skin-to-skin contact was intoxicating, leaving Veronica just wanting more, so when the hand on her ass moved to her clit, she lost her grip on Heather and fell against the bed, eyes closed and lips parted to breathe out her moans and whimpers, often cursing and her tongue occasionally letting Heather’s name slip.

It was strange, because Veronica never said anyone’s name during sex. It felt far too sensual, far too intimate. But Heather’s marks were all over her; she’d been claimed, and it had felt fucking heavenly, so somehow she was okay with moaning her name louder and louder, to the point where she was sure that _someone_ would have heard her through the walls had it not been for the party being so damn loud.

“Shit, shit, I-” she gasped as Heather palmed her clit at a rapid pace, matching her quick thrusting. “Close, close.”

Heather didn’t respond, instead just sank her teeth into Veronica’s neck and not letting her go. It was painful, and Veronica wondered if she was about to break through skin, but the sensation alongside the tightening coil in her gut made her fall into a sense of bliss, and she cried out as she was tipped over the edge. In the midst of her orgasm, she heard Heather’s breathing grow shallow and felt her pussy fill up with Heather’s cum, which only drew her climax out even more and made her shudder, the knot inside her swelling up and tying her to Heather.

Veronica flopped against the mattress, lifeless and out of breath and legs shaking uncontrollably, with Heather on top of her, breathing heavily against her neck. Her arousal slowly faded, replaced with complete and utter exhaustion - she hadn’t had an orgasm that intense in, like… _ever._

“Is that so?” Heather breathlessly chuckled. Oh, fuck, she’d said that out loud.

“You alphas have ego problems, so I’ll just say you don’t have great competition,” Veronica sighed, hoping Heather could pick up the humour in her tone. Granted, her statement wasn’t a lie, but after that, Heather absolutely didn’t deserve her pride to be stolen away from her. That was a fucking religious experience, if she’d ever felt one.

“I’m still taking it as a win,” Heather giggled, tracing shapes over Veronica’s shoulder with her fingers. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole party downstairs heard you.”

Suddenly that thought was no longer hot and a lot more _embarrassing,_ and she buried her face into Heather’s mess of hair and let out a silent scream. Heather snorted in amusement.

“I’m sure they didn’t don’t worry.”

“Mmm, I hope not.” Veronica exhaled and wiped off some sweat from her forehead.

“So, is your heat gone?” Heather asked. “Or whatever betas call it.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I think so,” Veronica replied. “I mean, I am still very hot, but that’s down to… _that._ ”

“What exactly _do_ betas call it, anyway?” Heather asked. “I didn’t even know betas got an equivalent to a heat or a rut.”

Veronica shrugged. “Differs from person to person. I personally get hot flashes and need to masturbate a few times to really get rid of it, though the best cure of it is sleep. Kind of hard to sleep when you’re constantly warm, though.” She let her eyes close - her heat may have faded, but the bed she lay on was still… incredibly comfortable. It smelled so strongly of Heather. “Some people will get a mini-rut, but it’s never as long as alpha’s. Maybe a day or two of being horny, before things are back to normal.”

“ _Lucky,_ ” Heather grunted, nuzzling a little further into Veronica’s neck. The pressure made Veronica become aware of the bite marks all over her, and it dawned on her how Heather really had just _claimed_ her, even if not permanently. She wasn’t sure how to feel about it now that her horniness had worn off. It seems Heather smelled nervousness on her scent, too, since she moved away from her scent glands and instead held herself over her. “Do you know why you started itching?”

Veronica shrugged. “I’ve gotten a little itchy before, but never like _that._ ” She was able to keep her eyes open, but they were very droopy. “This bed really helped though.” She sighed. “Though, I should probably get out of your hair; your packmates don’t know where you are, and my friends are probably waiting for me to return.”

This close, she could pick up on Heather’s content disappearing, and while it flattered Veronica to know her leaving was enough to disappoint her, she wasn’t about to cuddle a complete stranger.

“I don’t want to keep you,” Heather sighed, lifting herself up more by her arms, before she froze. “Oh, shit…”

“What?”

“I… I didn’t pull out.”

“And?”

Heather grimaced, as if to apologise, before moving backwards ever so slightly.

And Veronica was _pulled with her._

Yelping in surprise, Veronica sat up to check what was wrong, and dread hit her when she realised that… they were _still tied._

“Shit,” Veronica grunted, before attempting to slip out, which only caused Heather to yip in what she could only assume was pain. “Sorry, was that-”

“Just sensitive,” Heather said. “So, um, I hate to break it to you, but it kinda… takes me a while until my knot goes down.” She twiddled her thumbs and bit the inside of her cheek. “So we might be stuck like this for a little bit.”

Veronica deadpanned at her. “How long is ‘a little bit’?”

“...Probably half an hour.”

“Oh my God.”

They both sat there, unsure what to do next, and Veronica considered just having a staring contest with her for thirty minutes. However, her eyes were far too heavy for her to even win a participation award, and so she just fell back onto the bed with defeat, and only out of exhaustion and definitely not because she _really_ liked this bed. Heather had no choice but to follow on, but they were quick to change positions so they were lying on their side, because at least then each other’s sweat didn’t seep onto one another.

“So…” Veronica said, clicking her tongue.

“So…” Heather echoed, averting her gaze gingerly.

“What’s your favourite colour?” Veronica asked. A dumb question, but she was tired, and it’s all that came to mind.

“Yellow,” Heather said. “Yours?”

“Blue.” Veronica tilted her head. “We’re opposites.”

“Actually, orange is your opposite, and purple is mine,” Heather corrected. Veronica squinted.

“You sure you’re not an art major?”

Heather snickered. “No. Personally I’m not a fan of art taught in an academic setting, and I don’t want an art career. Trust me, when you don’t need a degree, you stick to it being a hobby.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Veronica said. “Not that I can draw.”

“I’m more of a painter myself,” Heather said with a smile. “Some of the paintings on the walls are mine. Like that one.” She pointed to a painting behind her, and in front of Veronica. What she thought was a beautiful, store-bought painting of a ginger cat under a ray of sunlight was in fact done by the hands of the woman currently knotting her.

“Is that fucking Warrior Cats?”

“...Maybe.”

“Ew, I just fucked a furry.” She faked pushing her away, not that she could anyway, and Heather let out an offended gasp.

“It’s what got me into art!”

Veronica snickered. “I’ll let it slide since that orgasm was pretty fucking good.”

Heather grinned proudly, and for a moment, they fell into a silence, uncertainty suddenly in the air. Veronica had no idea how to process the current situation. There was only so much small talk could do to distract them from their issue further down, and the weight of the situation was really starting to hit her. It wasn’t that she _regretted_ any of what happened, not in the slightest. Having a mind-blowing orgasm was a much preferred outcome to rolling around in her bed as she tried to sweat out her heat. But she had definitely expected this sexual release to come with no strings attached, so now that she was being forced to stare into the eyes of the woman who’d probably scented her enough to last several days at least - and she had heterochromia, by the way, one was hazel and the other was dark brown - was… intimidating.

“Was I okay?” Veronica asked, her voice a little timid. Heather seemed surprised to hear her ask that, but she nodded.

“Trust me, there was a reason I forgot to pull out.”

At the very least, that boosted Veronica’s pretty fragile ego.

“You seem a little on edge,” Heather said. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m fine,” Veronica said. “I’m glad I could give you a good impression of betas.”

Heather simpered sweetly. “Me too.” Another drawn out silence fell on them, before Heather picked up the conversation. “Is there a reason you don’t have a pack?”

Veronica hesitated to answer.

“I’m not all that interested,” she said with a shrug. “And no one is very interested in me, so it works.”

Heather frowned at her. “That’s not true, surely.”

She gave a dismissive shrug. “Alpha’s are obsessed with omegas, omegas are obsessed with alphas.” She slowly blinked at her. “Surely there’s a reason why you haven’t touched a beta before.”

Heather thought for a moment, before shrugging.

“We just don’t catch people’s eyes,” Veronica continued. “If an alpha has a choice between an omega and a beta, they’ll go for an omega every single time. There are literal statistics on this shit; I’m not just pulling this from my own insecurities.”

Heather remained quiet, and Veronica guessed she wasn’t sure how to respond. She felt a little bad for ruining the mood with her pessimistic views, but she was the one who asked, so she got an answer.

After a few quiet, awkward minutes passed, it looked like Heather was going to speak again, before she was cut off by the sound of a door opening. Both of their eyes had been drooping (though Veronica had forced hers to stay open; no way was she falling asleep in a stranger’s bed while still fucking tied to her) so the sound suddenly brought alertness to both of them. Veronica caught a whiff of fear from Heather, and Veronica imagined she was probably the same.

“Is that one of your packmates?” she whispered.

“Probably.” Heather grimaced.

“Fuck.” Veronica attempted to pull away, but she was still very much attached to Heather, and she groaned. “Oh no. Do we pretend we’re not here?"

“Um… about that.” Heather glimpsed at the door of her bedroom. “So, not only does it absolutely stink of sex in here, but also, um… I left the door open.”

Veronica’s heart dropped. “You _what?_ ”

Heather pointed to her door, and Veronica saw that it was indeed ajar. God, not even closed and just not locked - _ajar._

“Heather?” An unfamiliar voice, at least to Veronica, called. “I know you’re in here, I can smell you.” A pause. “I can smell someone else too, and they smell pretty familiar.” Footsteps closed in closer to the door, and Heather muttered curses as she grabbed a nearby blanket and covered both of them - mostly Veronica - with it. She let out a relieved sigh, but Veronica was still by no means relaxed, and her anxiety shot through the roof when she heard the bedroom door creak open.

“...Hey, Heather!” Heather tried to casually say, but the grin she held while holding herself up with her arm faltered quite a bit. “So, um, you know how I’m very forgetful and sometimes leave things unlocked?”

Veronica didn’t have the guts to look up from the pillow she’d buried her face into and face the other Heather, who she could only assume was omega-Heather, because she didn’t sound anything like Alpha Heather. This was far too mortifying for a first impression - naked and knotted.

“Holy shit, Heather,” she heard omega-Heather say.

“...Don’t look at me like that.”

The curiosity was killing her, so Veronica worked up the courage to lift her head and make very shameful eye contact with the newcomer. Standing in front of the door was a short, curvy woman with black, wavy hair. Her makeup was sharp and her face was pretty, but Veronica couldn’t pick up on her scent over the choking smell of Heather’s. She also felt embarrassment hit her even harder when she saw that omega-Heather was trying and failing to hold back a smirk, covering her mouth to keep in her snickers. Her green eyes locked with Veronica’s, and she briefly eyes her up and down, looking completely unphased by how she was literally fucking naked - even if she couldn’t see her under the blanket, it was kind of fucking obvious.

“Heather?” she asked, turning back to the woman lying next to her.

“...Yes?”

“Did you knot her?”

“...Yes.”

That was enough for omega-Heather to lose all her composure and burst out laughing, keeling over as she did so. Veronica watched her cradle her stomach as she cackled, her skin burning with abashment.

If the floor could open up and swallow her (and _only_ her, no one attached) that would be fucking wonderful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> veronica fucking got it
> 
> https://heathersgameoftag.tumblr.com/


	3. Chapter 3 - Alpha Bitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica wakes up in someone else's bed, and she's not about that.

“So, how long have you two been stuck like that?” Duke pointed to both Veronica and Heather, laughter still threatening to escape her. Heather winced.

“Maybe ten minutes?”

“Jesus Christ.” Duke rubbed her face as she tried to process the scene in front of her. “Well, as it would be awkward to wait another twenty minutes, hi, I’m Heather Duke, nice to meet you.” She walked over to Veronica and held a hand out to shake. Heather could smell the uncertainty from Veronica, who took extra care to hold the blanket over her chest with one arm as she strained around to hesitantly return the gesture.

“Veronica Sawyer,” she grumbled, before pulling the blanket further over her and muttering a quiet “fucking hell”.

“Okay, so I know this is incredibly awkward for you,” Heather said, catching her attention by placing a hand on her shoulder. “But this is good! Now Heather can get us things we need.” She stared at Duke pleadingly. “ _ Right, _ Heather?”

Duke rolled her eyes, but gave a nod. “Yeah, sure. Anything either of you need?”

“Um… phone,” Veronica grumbled. “On the coffee table in the living room. Please.”

“Heather?”

“Just water should be fine,” Heather said. Duke nodded, and left the room to grab those two things.

“You holding up okay?” She looked down at Veronica who had curled up against Heather’s blankets, now having closed her eyes. She just gave her a thumbs up, but somehow Heather wasn’t very convinced; granted, if she was caught ass-naked in front of a hookup’s pack, she’d be pretty mortified herself. She should  _ really _ remember to close the door next time.

Not long after she left, Duke returned with a phone in one hand and a glass of water in the other. She handed the phone to Veronica, who grunted a thank you, and came to sit next to Heather to hand her the glass.

“Thanks, dandelion,” Heather said, feeling relieved when the cold liquid slid down her throat, freeing her from the unpleasant sweat that was currently trapped under the blanket she had to take shelter under.

“I was wondering where you went,” Duke said, leaning over to nuzzle just below Heather’s ear. “Wouldn’t have come looking for you had I known.”

Heather purred as Duke’s sharp scent swirled around her nostrils, and she would have loved to lean over and scent her properly, but she didn’t want to risk dragging Veronica along with her.

“Is she just going to sit there?” Veronica asked, not taking her eyes off her phone. Her thumb seemed to be busy tapping away, but it wasn’t actually moving, so Heather did have to wonder what exactly it was she was doing. Maybe she was doing that thing where you’re panicking, so you just pretend to be on an app to distract yourself when actually you’re just scrolling up and down your homescreen. Though, she could hear the keyboard sound effects each time she tapped, so maybe she really was typing a message to someone.

“I can tell her to leave if you need her to,” Heather offered, which earned an offended squawk from Duke.

“This is  _ my dorm. _ ”

“Technically, this is my room.”

“Hm. True.”

Veronica gave a shrug, still not looking up at either of them. “It’s fine, whatever.”

Both Heather and Heather deadpanned at her as she continued to stare at her phone. Duke leaned towards Heather and whispered,

“Not much of a talker, is she?”

“I mean, give her a break, she just got railed to hell and back.”

“ _ I can hear both of you, _ ” Veronica said loudly, her eyes widening a little, though still glued to her screen. Heather gave her an apologetic smile, while Duke just snickered to herself.

“Please tell me everything later,” she then whispered to her. Heather gave an affirming nod, though not before telling her,

“Don’t you and Heather make fun of me.”   


“Oh, we will,” Duke said. “We’re going to bully you for at least three weeks.”

“Okay, three weeks is tame for you two, so I’ll take it.”

“Honestly, this is me assuming you’ll do something else that’ll catch our attention more.”   


Heather bared her fangs, but only playfully so, while Duke just pulled tongues at her. At some point in their conversation, though, it seems Veronica’s eyes finally lifted from her phone, but only because they’d closed again. Heather looked down at her and saw her hand had unclutched her phone, leaving it to rest on the mattress, while her eyes remained closed and light breathing escaped her parted lips. She exchanged a surprised look with Heather, who ended up laughing at the sight.

“Yo, Veronica, you good there, pal?”

No response, of course.

“Oh my God, she’s out cold.” Duke laughed harder, while Heather just groaned.

“She’s going to get her scent all over my bed!” she complained. “Don’t get me wrong - I  _ like _ her scent, but I was scenting all this stuff for your nests!”

Suddenly Duke stopped laughing, replaced with a pout.

“I mean, little point in trying to save them now,” she said. “I don’t think you realise just how  _ strong _ this room smells.”

“If I left and came back I probably would.” She pointed to further down the blanket. “But I  _ can’t. _ ”

“Oh, Heather,” Duke sighed, resting on her shoulder and shaking her head. “You don’t  _ knot _ hookups. Not when it doesn’t go down.”

“It was  _ hot, _ okay?”

“I’m sure it was. You did a fucking  _ number _ on her neck, and god knows where else,” Duke stated, pointing to the myriad of bruises on Veronica’s skin. “Oh, shit.”

Before Heather could ask, she felt fingers run over some particularly tender parts of her skin, around her shoulder blades. The pressure, even though it was light, made her wince in pain.

“She did a number on you, too,” Duke commented. “Well, in light of this… situation… I have something very important to tell you.”

“What is it?” Heather asked, only to be met with Duke looking down at her own phone and scrolling through something or other, holding up a finger towards Heather to silence her. Heather waited a good while before Duke finally looked up at her again, holding the phone’s speaker out in the open so that Heather could hear the opening of  _ Womanizer _ loud and clear.

“That’s all,” Duke said, letting the song play at a lower volume, likely not to wake Veronica. Heather rolled her eyes.

“In fairness, she was having some sort of beta-heat,” she said. “I was helping her release some tension, and it seemed to work, because she doesn’t seem to have a rash anymore.”

“A rash?” Duke tilted her head. “Betas get  _ rashes _ when they’re horny?”

“Well, Veronica said she’d never gotten itchy before, so I imagine it’s just a one-off.”

Duke arched a brow at Veronica. “Imagine getting out of heat by fucking  _ once, _ ” she said. “Lucky bastard.” She looked back to Heather. “How much longer are you gonna be stuck like this, by the way?”

“Um…” She tried wriggling out of Veronica as gently as she could, and this time she did actually feel movement, though when Veronica let out a murmur in her sleep, she stopped. “Okay, shouldn’t be too long.”

“Good, because the smell of sex in here is driving me crazy.” Duke nuzzled further into the crook of Heather’s neck and purred against her, and Heather very desperately wanted to drag her to her nest and scent her there instead, but she unfortunately still had trouble even turning around.

“As soon as I untie, I’ll go have a shower and come and nest with you. How does that sound?”

Duke nodded in approval. “Why not just nest as soon as you’re free?”

“Because that means getting Veronica’s scent all over your things, and also I’m covered in cum.”

“Okay, ew, yeah, wash your dick,” Duke said. “And you better get tested after this.”

Heather chuckled, planting a soft kiss on her forehead. “I will.”

* * *

Veronica woke up surrounded by scents that weren’t hers. They weren’t JD’s, either, but she couldn’t bring herself to complain. She was surrounded by such sweet, warm aromas that made her just want to close her eyes again and snuggle into the unreasonably soft blankets against her bare skin.

_ Wait… I don’t sleep nude. _

Snapping out of her blissful trance, Veronica shot up in the strange bed. Memories suddenly flooded back to her, and her content state turned into one of pure embarrassment. She looked down and saw that she was indeed naked, only now she had a duvet covering her lower half. It was warm and wrapped around her in a way that made Veronica not want to move, but the idea of being in such a vulnerable state in someone else’s dorm made her scramble around for her clothes. Goddammit, they were all on the floor, which was already messy enough anyway.

One thing she knew was that she was alone in the room. The light was off, and there were no windows to let any light in, so she had to grab her phone to light up the pathway to the light switch. As strongly as the room smelled like Heather, she was correct in her assumption that she wasn’t there. Okay, that was good. She hadn’t fallen asleep in the same bed as someone.

It was then she saw a glass of water on the nightstand with a bright yellow note stuck to it. After clipping her bra and sliding her underwear back on, she went to read it.

_ Hi, Veronica! _

_ You passed out before, but don’t worry too much about it. Feel free to leave whenever you want, even if it’s 2am when you wake up; keys are on the shelf next to the coat hangers, just lock the door behind you and slide them back under. Or if you want, you can stay for breakfast! I always get up early and I make killer pancakes :] _

_ -Heather M. _

_ P.S. Heather D said “nice hair”. _

Okay, well that was nice of her, but she certainly wasn’t staying here any longer, no matter how curious she was to see how good her pancakes were. She’d overstayed her welcome. She gathered the rest of her clothes and shoved them on, not caring if they weren’t neat, then opened up the door with her phone flashlight still switched on, fully expecting it to be dark out. Perhaps she should have checked the time, though, because it was completely bright in the living room, sunlight just coming over the horizon seeping through opened curtains.

She checked the time. 7:30 am. Jesus, how long was she out for?

“Veronica!”

She jolted in surprise at the sound of a voice, only relaxing when she saw Heather McNamara stepping out from the kitchen in a black tank top and grey shorts.

“Oh.” Veronica wiped her eyes. “Morning.”

“Good morning! I hope you slept well.” She appeared to be sipping a protein shake of some sort, Veronica could see the closer she walked to her.

“Slept fine, thanks.” Minus the faint headache she had, likely from dehydration because she was an idiot and didn’t drink the water that was given to her. “Why are you up so early?”

“It’s my routine,” Heather said. “I like to make my pack breakfast too, since I know neither of them will get up in time to make some for themselves.”

“That’s nice of you.” She looked towards the door, and spotted her cardigan hanging on the hangers and her shoes just below it. “Well, I don’t wanna impose, so I better get going.”

“Are you sure you don’t want breakfast?”

“No no, I’m okay.” Veronica backed away. “Thanks for the offer though.”

“It’s no problem.” Heather watched her go and grab her cardigan and slip her shoes on. “See you around?”

“I imagine so.”

Heather unlocked the door and waved her goodbye, and Veronica thanked the universe that they lived on the same floor, because now that she was actually moving, she realised just how much she  _ ached. _ Her legs were exhausted and her neck and collarbone stung, and she certainly wasn’t looking forward to looking in the mirror and seeing the damage for herself. She made it to her dorm and stumbled in, planning on throwing her clothes off and dashing into the shower, but her plan was foiled by the surprising sight of JD, sitting on the couch, playing a video game that Veronica was too tired to guess the name off.

“Ah, so she didn’t get eaten,” he greeted, pausing his game. Veronica stared at him with confusion. “Why did you send the group chat such ominous texts before vanishing from existence?”

“What?” Veronica unlocked her phone and went into the group chat, and saw she had many unread messages, as well as messages she didn’t even remember sending, up until that moment.

_ 11:35 _

**touch-starved bi:** AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**touch-starved bi:** AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**touch-starved bi:** FML AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**touch-starved bi:** she kinda cute tho

_ 11:40 _

**mariana trench:** veronica are you fucking dying

**thewomanbehindtheslaughter:** veronica you have been gone for like an hour where the hell are you we are lowkey worried

**mariana trench:** oh betty i found her scent

**mariana trench:** WHORE

**mariana trench:** VERONICA YOU ABSOLUTE SLUT

**mariana trench:** oh wait shit did you get eaten by an alpha or something

**thewomanbehindtheslaughter:** jd what

**mariana trench:** come find me i’ll tell u

**thewomanbehindtheslaughter:** where tf are you

**thewomanbehindtheslaughter:** OH there u are hold on

Veronica looked up from her phone and scowled.

“Please let me go to the shower without having to explain myself.”

JD didn’t seem to be listening though. Instead, his eyes were on Veronica’s neck, lips tightly pursed like he were holding in laughter - which he probably was. Rather than ridiculing her, though, he instead slowly lifted his phone, tapped the screen a couple of times, before lifting it to his ear.

“Betty, sorry to wake you up, but come over now. It’s an emergency.”

Almost immediately there was thumping from the room next to them, and seconds later, Betty barged into their dorm, holding a hair straightener in a position like she was ready to beat the crap out of someone with it.

“What’s wrong?” she barked, raising the straightener above her head.

“You owe me twenty,” JD simply said, pointing to Veronica, who just turned to stare at Betty. Despite having apparently lost money she could have used for Domino’s pizza, a grin was slowly crawling onto her lips, and Veronica knew what was coming.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Holy shit, you  _ actually got railed! _ ” Betty began to cackle uncontrollably. “ _ You! You actually got fucked! _ ”

“Now, that’s just presumptuous.”

JD scoffed. “ _ Is it? _ ”

“Sweetie, have you looked in a mirror today?” Betty asked.

“...No.”

“I think you should.”

The suspense was in fact killing her slowly, and so she took off to the bathroom. One look in the mirror, and her throat made a strange, high pitched noise at the sight of the plethora of dark bruises left all over her neck, shoulders and collarbones. The closer they got to her scent glands, the bolder they became, which also meant the most noticeable marks were in the most obvious places, the only thing hiding them being her hair.

“I-” she stammered, but no sentence could be formed. “I didn’t think-”

“So, how was it?” JD asked, opening the bathroom door a little wider. “Please tell us everything.”

“Maybe not  _ everything, _ ” Betty added.

Veronica ignored them. “I have a  _ class _ today!” she exclaimed, keeping her hands flat on the sides of her neck. “And then  _ work _ in a day! How am I meant to  _ hide _ these?”

“Ever heard of concealer?” Betty asked.

“Fucking  _ concealer? _ Like hell that would help!”

“No, no, not  _ makeup  _ concealer,” Betty said, shaking her head. “Mark concealer - it’s made for these types of situations.”   


“Oh, that’s a thing?” JD widened his eyes. “That would have been useful to know in high school.”

“Yeah, yeah, mark concealer.” Veronica nodded eagerly. “Where can I find some? Do you have any?”

“If I did I’d give you some,” Betty said. “Your best bet is going to the nearest adult store.”

“I have to go out like  _ this? _ ”

“Just wear a scarf,” Betty suggested. “But if you’re really that reluctant, I can just get some for you. I just don’t want to end up getting the wrong shade.”

Veronica considered her options for a moment. “No no, I’ll just go after my class today,” she said in defeat. “I’d go before, but I don’t have enough time.” She turned around and leaned over to turn the shower on. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get ready for classes.”

“Aww, but I wanted to hear the details.” JD frowned, while Betty just snickered and patted him on the shoulder.

“She’ll tell us eventually. Now let’s leave her be.” They both stepped out of the bathroom, and just before Betty closed it for her, she said, “By the way, go easy on the marks near the scent glands. Those hurt like hell.”

The door clicked closed, and Veronica immediately tore her clothes off (again), threw them in the laundry basket and decided to take in the rest of the damage. She looked down and saw  _ even more _ bite marks on her breasts as well as claw marks down her thighs, and thanks to Betty’s warning, she remembered to turn the temperature of the water down to something more mild. She didn’t like cold showers, she always went for near-scorching hot, but lukewarm would have to do.

For the most part, she felt no more pain than just general aching, but that did change when she finished washing her hair and got around to the rest of her. Her loofa felt  _ awful _ against her bite marks, and when she dared to rub soap against her scent glands - knowing that if she didn’t, Heather’s scent would remain strong, but  _ God, _ the feeling of the rough material scraping her incredibly sensitive skin made her yelp. She marched through it, though, determined to go about her day without giving people the impression that she was  _ claimed _ in any way.

She finished off in the shower, sniffing herself to make sure the scents had died down. They weren’t gone completely, but they were definitely muted. Satisfied, she wrapped herself in a towel and stepped back out into the living room and to her bedroom, where she got changed into a more modest outfit. She grabbed a denim jacket and lifted the collar up, so that she had that as well as her scarf to cover up any marks whatsoever. She checked the time - 8:45. She had a class in about an hour, so not enough time to drive to the nearest adult store, just enough time to get some work done, and have breakfast, perhaps. Before grabbing a granola bar and running off to the library, though…

“Oh, you going?” JD flinched in surprise when Veronica leaned over the couch to quickly scent him, pressing her cheek against his neck.

“Got work to print,” she said. “You better use those twenty dollars for a Domino’s later.”

“Oh,  _ absolutely, _ ” JD said with a grin. “See you later, wench.”

She gave him a middle finger, before stealing the last granola bar in their cabinet and hurrying out the door.

* * *

Her class had dragged on for way too long, and as it turns out, a singular granola bar was not enough to feed her, especially after a night of drinking. She hadn’t even drank much, but she’d still had alcohol in her system, so as soon as she got this damn concealer, she’d grab some shitty fast food. She’d do it the other way around, but September was  _ not _ the best month for wearing a scarf 24/7. It wasn’t summer anymore, no, but there was still enough heat in the air to make her sweat into the fabric.

She debated making the ten minute walk back to her dorm to get her motorcycle and drive down to the city herself, but she was exhausted from last night and she didn’t think she could drive with a scarf waving in her face anyway, so fuck saving herself from falling into even more debt, time to get an uber. It came in about five minutes and luckily the driver wasn’t at all chatty, so she could escape awkward small talk, at least. A few minutes later she was at the centre of Sherwood city, which wasn’t saying much, because the city was really fucking small, but hey, less ground to cover on her feet. She kept her head down the whole way to the store, earphones blasting  _ Oh Klahoma _ in her earphones to drown out the overwhelming sounds of the city. She finally made it to the store, paused her music and found herself in an aisle full of lotions, lube and other sex gadgets.

She eventually found the concealers Betty told her about, and for once she thanked being a beta, because the omega and alpha concealers had far less in stock. She was curious as to what the difference was, and in looking at the tiny writing on the back of the bottle, it seems the main difference was in the scent each concealer gave off. Hey, why the hell did omegas get cocoa butter while she got…  _ shea _ butter? Bullshit.

She made her way to the counter, and on the way, she passed a shelf of cheap-looking knotted dildos that caught her eye. She was kind of surrounded by sex toys right now, but they were all way out of her budget - even this tiny little bottle was $18 - so seeing some discount toys right in front of her, a broke college student, was… incredibly tempting.

And before she knew it, she was buying two items. After making her purchase (and getting a suspicious look from the cashier who absolutely saw right through her scarf) she shoved her items in her bag and ran to the nearest McDonalds, finally able to hide in a bathroom to put this fucking concealer on.

Taking her scarf off felt like breathing for the first time, and as she stared at her reflection’s exposed marks, still as dark as ever, she unscrewed the bottle lid and was about to squeeze a dollop onto her hand, before stopping. She wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but she got the urge to run her fingers over the bruises, somehow enjoying the pain. Rather than an inconvenience, she was able to see them as a reminder to how fucking  _ good _ Heather had felt when she marked her, and part of her yearned for those fangs to sink into her skin once more. Then she kicked herself, reminding herself that she was in a disabled bathroom putting on some fucking hickey concealer, and prayed that there wasn’t a poor disabled, trans or gender non-conforming person waiting to use the only disabled bathroom in this building. She lathered it on quickly, and it worked like a charm, so she packed her things again and exited the bathroom. Good, no queue outside. Unfortunately there was a queue for actual food, though, but now that she was here, she really wanted a cheeseburger. Yes, it was worth the wait, because she was order 69. Nice.

After her cheeseburger and fries were devoured, she got an uber back up the hill, stopping near her street. She would have asked to go right down, but at some point she realised she was craving caffeine because fucking hell, she was so tired. Good thing she got a discount at the very place she worked at.

She ordered an espresso, and not some extremely complicated order like some of the shit she had to deal with when she was behind the counter, thanked the people who were essentially her coworkers, and went to sit on a stool by the window, right in the corner. For a while, it was great, because no one fucking bothered her, and she was left to stare out the window and daydream to the songs that played through her earphones, but that was just too good for the universe, wasn’t it? She’d almost finished her espresso when the seat right next to her suddenly became occupied. She was irritated, but she didn’t look at the person next to her, thinking that maybe the other seats were just full.

Then she looked in the faint reflection of the window, and,  _ no, _ those seats weren’t full. This person just came and… sat right next to her. Disgruntled, she shot a side-glimpse to them, and to her surprise, she instantly recognised her. Red, curly hair, this time tied in a loose ponytail that flowed over one shoulder, dark eyeshadow and piercing blue eyes, bold red bralette with thin straps that criss-crossed over her cleavage - and there was a  _ lot _ of cleavage - and black high-waisted jeans. All things Veronica had failed to notice about Alpha-Heather the previous night. Reluctantly, she pulled her earphones out, but still kept them on the table as to imply she wanted to keep them in.

“Can I help you?”

Heather’s red lips were wrapped around a straw of, what do you know, some sort of fancy-ass coffee that even Veronica, a barista who worked here, couldn’t pick apart perfectly. Typical alpha.

“Yes, actually,” Heather eventually spoke after swallowing a gulp of her drink. “But I’ll wait for you to finish first.” She nodded to Veronica’s espresso and continued sipping. A little weirded out, Veronica just returned to her own drink, and actually pretended to still be drinking it even after it was finished because she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what was going to come next. Coincidentally, Heather had managed to gulp her significantly bigger drink not long after Veronica, and as soon as she realised Veronica was finished, she grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out. Okay, what the fuck.

“Can you please tell me what your deal is?” Veronica tried to ask, but Heather didn’t respond. She just continued to pull Veronica away, until they had walked around to the back of the store, in a secluded area of the parking lot. Veronica came here to smoke on her breaks sometimes. Heather finally stopped pulling her, letting go for a few glorious seconds, before she spun around and pinned Veronica against a wall she hadn’t been aware was so close behind her. She yelped in surprise as the alpha leered at her, leaning closer and closer until their faces were inches apart.

“I’ll be blunt, beta,” she said in a tone that was sickeningly sweet, and somehow awfully intimidating. “Heather’s my closest friend, other than Heather, of course - she’s known me longer than anyone, beside my parents, and put up with all my bullshit in high school.” She pressed her hand harder against Veronica’s (bruised) shoulder, and she bit back a whine. “I’d live the rest of my life as a feral over losing her, and I want to make sure that she doesn’t get hurt, more than anything.”

“I- huh?” She thickly swallowed, shrinking a little under her icy glower. “I don’t- why are you telling me this?”

Heather pressed against her shoulder even harder, her other hand just by Veronica’s temple. She was trapped. “I’m making sure we’re on the same page, beta.” She bared her  fangs - they weren’t as sharp as McNamara’s, but they were pearly white and caught the light perfectly. “I know what you two got up to last night.”

“Y-yeah? Heather said you’d be fine with it.”   


“I am.” She cocked her head to the side and smiled, though there was something vaguely threatening about how one corner of her mouth was more upturned than the other. “So long as you don’t hurt her.”

“Meaning?”

Her nails - no,  _ claws _ \- curled into her denim jacket.

“I’m saying, if you play with her feelings at all, or even worse, break her sweet little heart,” she moved closer, and her smile disappeared, her lip now curling, “you’re  _ dead. _ ”

Veronica stared at her, knowing that she could for sure smell her fear.

“If it makes you feel better,” Veronica found the courage to speak in full sentences. “I don’t do feelings. I’m only about hookups; no courting, no packs, no shit like that.”

Heather raised a brow curiously. It didn’t seem to convince her though.

“I don’t want to hurt Heather,” Veronica told her. “I promise. She’s a nice girl, you’re lucky to have her as a packmate.” She straightened herself up a little, though she was still pressed against the brick behind her. “But honestly, I didn’t even mean for things to go anywhere; I went into a miniature heat, and she offered to help. That’s all.”

Heather finally leaned back, but her hands were still unmoving.

“That doesn’t make me feel better, actually,” she said. “Hookups are hookups, until they’re not.”

“I’m sorry?”

Heather shrugged. “I told myself my flings with Heather were just ‘hookups’ at first. Now I nest with her every night -  _ God _ I’ve become soft.” She rolled her eyes at herself, before turning her attention back to Veronica. “Look, Veronica…”

“Sawyer.”

“Sawyer,” Heather said, her finger suddenly on her chin, holding her head up. Veronica’s breath hitched - her claw was sharp. “All I ask is, if this really is a hookup, keep it as just that.” She leaned closer. “If you want something more, then I’d be extra careful, if I were you, because if you  _ dare _ fuck with her feelings.” She leaned even closer, her mouth right next to her ear. Why didn’t this woman know anything about boundaries? “You’ll have to deal with me, and I don’t think you wanna do that, darling.”

Her breath grazed her ear, some of it landing on her scent glands, causing the slightest itching sensation to surface.

“You know, you could have asked me nicely,” Veronica said. “The message would have come across just fine.”

“Yeah.” Heather leaned back and shrugged. “I know.”

Veronica gave the slightest snarl. “I see. You’re not just an alpha, you’re an alpha  _ bitch _ .”

“Glad you noticed.” She  _ finally _ released Veronica and stepped back, her bold scent still lingering in the air that she’d stood, making Veronica want to hold her breath. “I prefer to get the message across without any bullshit. Hope you don’t mind.”

“I kind of do, actually.”

Heather just gave a cocky grin, tilting her head to the side a little.

“Next time, make sure there are no clumps in your concealer.” With that, she swung around on her heel and waved her goodbye as she stalked off, posture tall and proud and nothing like Veronica’s. “Looks like I’ll see you around, Sawyer.”

“Unfortunately,” Veronica growled, watching her walk away bitterly, while a vague itching tingled around her neck. Just before turning the corner, Heather caught her eye one last time, and it was the most infuriating, patronising look Veronica had ever seen on an alpha. Giving a disdainful huff, she marched off, taking a detour around the shop as to not bump into her again and whipping out her phone to text JD to order that fucking pizza.

He’ll need it for the  _ major _ bitchfest he’d be listening to tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heather chandler has better relationship values than veronica in this au and it's royally fucking me up. go back to TAG that shit actually makes sense.
> 
> https://heathersgameoftag.tumblr.com/


	4. Chapter 4 - Sweeter Than Incense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica's alone on a Friday, and also completely free. So meeting up with Heather Duke sounded like a good plan - hopefully she can leave a better impression this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS: men being creepy and touchy again
> 
> also spoilers for oitnb :]

Veronica woke up in a cold sweat. She was disoriented, but she could tell it was the early hours of the morning. There was very little light coming through her window and her eyes were heavy. She could feel a tingling sensation crawling down her neck and sweat being trapped under her duvet. It was incredibly uncomfortable, so she threw her duvet off. Though she was now exposed to the cold air of her room, it didn’t soothe the warmth beating under her skin, nor the itching. Unlike last time, though, it wasn’t her main concern. No, her main concern right now was the aching between her legs.

She couldn’t remember what she dreamed about, other than the fact that Heather had been involved. She was pretty sure she had been touching her in some way, but she couldn’t remember where. She wished she did though, it would have made her fantasy a lot more easier to imagine.

As exhausted as she was, there was no way she’d be able to fall back asleep. Her body was burning and she was rubbing her thighs together, letting out quiet, frustrated whines and she scratched all over her thighs and arms and neck.

With nothing else on her mind, she opened up her drawer next to her bed and grabbed that fortunate purchase she had made just yesterday. Tearing her clothes off - because all of them were driving her crazy - she closed her eyes and used one hand to feel around her labia, and as soon as she touched it, her eyes widened by how much moisture was there. Usually it took her quite a bit of effort to get that wet, but right now she was dripping onto her bed from basically nothing at all. She didn’t bother thinking about it too hard though, instead just taking advantage of the free lubricant so she could slide the dildo inside of her with ease. She let out a moan as she did - fuck, she was sensitive - and started off slow.

As one hand busied itself with thrusting the dildo inside of her, her other worked elsewhere. Usually she’d go straight to her clit and get it all over with, but somehow, despite how hot and itchy she felt, her whole body felt wonderful to touch, especially when she imagined her hands weren’t her own. Eyes still closed, she ran her hand over her chest, occasionally pinching her nipples and groaning, bucking her hips forward. She imagined it was Heather, especially when she dug her nails into her skin and left behind a faint ache, wishing that Heather was marking and clawing her all over. Her hand then traveled over her stomach, nails grazing her abdomen, before reaching her thighs. She raked her nails over them, too, but never quite reached her centre. The thought of the alpha being inside of her while touching her all over and claiming her body as hers was incredibly arousing, and slick noises grew louder as she kept fucking herself, and she knew that somehow, she was getting even more wet.

Unable to hold back anymore, she finally reached her clit and started out slow, moaning at how her hand slid over it with ease. Meanwhile, her other hand sped up the thrusting, and she struggled to hold back the embarrassing cries that sounded from the back of her throat. Her lips fell open and she began to pant, the heat in her stomach growing and her thighs beginning to shake. Her arm was beginning to ache, but she didn’t care, going even faster. The fingers on her clit began to quicken too, and a coil in her gut started to form, tightening with each thrust she made. Her moans were high-pitched and needy when she felt herself growing close to the edge, and as she worked towards her oncoming orgasm, she forced the dildo to slip inside her even further, wincing as the knot squeezed through her entrance. She pushed through it, though, imagining that Heather was holding her close, maybe biting her neck as she knotted her, coming inside her. It was that thought that tipped her over the edge, and she came with a silent scream, back arching off the sweat-soaked bed and her whole body shuddering with lust.

She flopped back onto the bed with a loud sigh, letting go of the dildo that was still knotted inside her. Though her libido was no longer awake, the thought of being knotted after the fact was still incredibly arousing, and perhaps she would have started touching herself again, had she not exhausted herself so much. Also, her clit was on fire and she was more concerned with how gross her bedsheets now felt. She’d sweated onto them so much, and she dreaded thinking about how big the wet patch around her vagina was.

After lying there with her eyes closed and breathing heavily, she heard her phone vibrate. It took her a few moments to gather the strength to reach towards it, and opening her eyes at last to a bright screen was incredibly painful. When her vision finally stopped being blurry, she glanced at her notifications, and saw a new message from JD. Without thinking, she tapped it.

_ 3:55 _

**mariana trench:** holy fuck how touch starved are you

Her brain was too tired to fully comprehend his message at first, but the realisation eventually came to her, and all the heat she’d lost from her orgasm returned in the form of embarrassment. Oh, what she wouldn’t do for sound-proof walls.

_ 3:58 _

**touch-starved bi:** LISTEN-

**mariana trench:** done enough of that already luv xoxo

**touch-starved bi:** I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE AWAKE I’M SO SORRY

**mariana trench:** if i knew this is what would happen after you getting dicked i would have wanted you to die a virgin

**touch-starved bi:** i already lost my virginity before i met you???

**mariana trench:** this is why horny people don’t deserve rights

**mariana trench:** you whore

**mariana trench:** wouldnt be surprised if you bought a sex toy while you were at the adult store yesterday

_ 4:02 _

**mariana trench:** your silence is deafening

**touch-starved bi:** they were discount price okay

**mariana trench:** and u didnt get me one??? fucking hoe :(

**touch-starved bi:** i’m going back to sleep. i beg you to not make this weird in the morning.

**mariana trench:** no promises with that honey

Dropping her phone back on her nightstand, she was suddenly far too tired to be mortified about her best friend listening to her masturbate. She’d crawl into a hole and die in the morning - right now her eyes were far too heavy to keep open.

* * *

“If you want my honest opinion, you should  _ definitely _ consider hooking up with Heather again,” JD said just after spitting out his toothpaste in the sink. Veronica, who was simply listening to him get ready in the bathroom while being curled up on the couch with her chin resting on the sofa’s arm, just rolled her eyes.

“ _ That _ was a one time thing. I went into a miniature heat, and she offered to help.” She studied her nails, as if doing so would distract her from the thought of Heather fucking her senseless. Even though her  _ second _ miniature heat had faded since this morning, her brain was still wandering to inappropriate places.

“You sure you’re not still in one?” JD asked, his mouth obviously holding a toothbrush.

“You know how my heats are. I’m not like you - they come and go at random.”

That wasn’t entirely true. While all betas’ heats tended to vary depending on the person, they all had one thing in common. None of them were consistent, and instead came in bursts. For Veronica, her heats would last for a few hours at a time, then they’d relax and she’d feel completely fine. Then it would return a few hours later, before leaving once again. It would be on-and-off for maybe four or five days, a week at most, and while it was annoying as all hell, she much preferred that over what was apparently complete and utter hell that was omega’s heat. They’d remain in heat for two weeks and be horny, uncontrollable messes who craved attention and doubled the amount of nests they made. Ruts weren’t as bad, but Veronica definitely wouldn’t want to experience them either. Having an urge to fuck and be unable to keep your boner down also didn’t sound pleasant. There were few things she liked about being a beta, but this was definitely a saving grace for her.

Until now, that is. She figured it was probably a bump in the road, because not only was this heat early (they’d come every two months, contrasting to the three or four month gap that came with omegas and alphas) as she still had a good month to go until her next one was due, but also, since when was gaining her own version of hives a thing? She never thought she’d miss her hot flushes, constant sweating and the occasional migraine, but she did. Itching was way worse, because now her skin felt on fire and it was impossible to ignore or repress with painkillers and suppressants. At least, that’s what she assumed - she hadn’t gotten a chance to try those theories out yet.

“Then this will probably pass,” JD said, stepping out of the bathroom. “Maybe you just got it bad this time. You know how some people will just get really painful periods? Probably like that.”

Veronica shrugged. “Wouldn’t know, I’ve been on the pill for years. All my periods were painful and irregular.”

“I mean, yeah, weren’t you anaemic or something?”

“Yep.”

She watched as JD went back into his room for a few seconds, before returning with his backpack. He didn’t put it on yet, though.

“Okay, I’m off to class,” he said. “I can take that from you now.”

Veronica nodded, sitting up from where she was lying. Underneath her had been his trenchcoat, which JD would always get her to scent if he got the chance. He may like attention from alphas, but only when it was good attention, and he certainly wasn’t used to getting the results he wanted, so whenever he left the house by himself, Veronica would always assist him in scenting him as much as possible. He leaned over the couch to let Veronica scent him, before ruffling her head and taking off, leaving Veronica alone for the rest of the day, most likely. She always looked forward to Fridays since she had no classes and usually got her work done earlier in the week, but every single time, she’d be stuck on how to actually spend it.

She shrugged and decided to get even more ahead of her studies, reading over her notes and textbooks for the whole morning, without even getting up to pee. A bad habit, she knew, but once she was in the zone, it was hard to break out, and even harder to return to.

Eventually she found herself retaining information she already had memorised, so she finally closed the books and binders and shoved them under the coffee table, and of course went to the bathroom. Whilst in there, she got yet another glimpse of the marks that were still on her neck - not showing any sign of fading any time soon. The concealer was actually made for sticking to skin for several days at a time until inevitably being washed away in the shower, but she guessed a lot of it had washed off by the stupid amount of sweat she’d let out in the early hours of the morning. It wasn’t too hard to fix, though. She didn’t need as much as yesterday as some of it still lingered.

_ Oh… that’s what I should do, actually. _ Bedsheets must be changed. They had cum stuck to them. She went into her room and threw on the first outfit she saw in her wardrobe, put on some deodorant and then sprayed on some scent blockers, before gathering up her bedsheets, duvet and pillow cases and shoving them in a large bag, along with some other clothes that needed washing. She was lucky the laundry place was just down her street, or she would have considered installing a washing machine in their dorm.

She arrived at the laundry place, and luckily there were few people in there, and they were all spaced out. She scented very little today, probably because everyone’s laundry was being washed already.. She found a machine right at the back of the room, away from everyone else, and began to shove her clothes in first. She heard some more people come in, but luckily they didn’t go near her little corner. Time for a speed round, knowing full well what was stuck to her bedsheets, so she threw her pillowcases in first, then her duvet, and then finally the dreaded bedsheet. She scrambled to get it in as quick as she could without the strong scent of her spreading to the rest of the room, and for a moment, she thought she got away with it.

Then she sensed a new presence closing in on her, and she froze.

“Hey, baby, what exactly smells so good?”

Gross.  _ Gross. _

“None of your fucking business.” She slammed the machine door and spun around to face whoever was standing behind her. Standing up, she caught a whiff of the stranger’s scent - he was an alpha. Of  _ course _ he was an alpha. And with another sniff, she could pick up on a mixture of scents with him. He could possibly even be an Alpha - now that was a horrifying thought.

Her fury didn’t deter him though. Instead, his pupils dilated as he inhaled deeply. That was weird… she was wearing scent blockers. Was the smell of her bed sheets really that strong that he could still smell it? She had little time to dwell on it though, since he’d cocked his head to the side and took a step towards her. Nope. Too close.

“Say, what’s your rank?” he questioned. “You smell almost as good as an omega.”

“Again, none of your business.” She bared her teeth and took a step back. He frowned at the show of aggression, but he still persisted.

“Oh come on, don’t be like that.” He cocked his head to the side. “You smell like you have some tension to release, and I’m fully willing to help you with that.”

“I have higher standards,” she spat, now on her toes. That was something she usually didn’t do, but she was on high alert, and she’d be willing to pounce if needed.

“Trust me, I could  _ really _ help you with your-”

An arm was suddenly around her waist, and she froze up as he leaned forward to try and sniff her.

“-Problem.”

“Get off of me!” she barked, trying to pull away. But he was strong, and clearly very into her scent, even though it should hardly be present at all. Just as she got ready to use her claws, someone else spoke up.

“Get off my packmate.”

The alpha suddenly tensed up, whipping his head around to face the newcomer. Veronica also glanced just behind him, surprised to see Heather Duke standing there, eyes narrowed into slits and lip curled into a ferocious snarl.

“She’s not your packmate,” the alpha accused. “I can’t smell you on her at all.”

“If I say she’s my packmate, she is. None of your business why I haven’t scented her - I could have gone feral, for all you know.” She stalked closer to him, a low growl rumbling in her throat. Damn, for an omega, she was really fucking threatening - and this was coming from someone who was friends with Betty Finn.

Her statement seemed to make him back down, though he was definitely still skeptical. His arm slipped off of Veronica’s waist and he stepped away from her, not taking his gaze off of her. It was then that Veronica caught the scent of fear - aww, cute. Maybe he didn’t believe Heather’s lie at all, but he certainly didn’t want to get involved with a rabid omega.

As soon as he was a good distance away from her, Heather walked over to Veronica and pulled her down so she could rub her cheek. It was different to how McNamara had done it - it wasn’t a claim, so much as it was, in a way,  _ being _ claimed. Instinctively, she returned her gesture - almost forgetting that it was just a charade, and wrapped her arms around her waist and nuzzled her back, feeling a little awkward as she did. When she did, she was hit with her sweet, enticing scent that Veronica was sure she’d get addicted to if she lingered for longer than needed.

“Thanks,” she whispered to her, keeping her eye on the guy who had already lost interest and returned to his own machine, which actually started to beep to signal it was done. Phew.

“No problem,” Heather whispered back, stepping away from her. “It’s a good thing it was just  _ me _ who saw that instead of our Alpha, right, Veronica?” she spoke loud again, making sure the guy would hear. Veronica nodded.

“Oh, she would have shredded him to  _ pieces _ , Heather,” Veronica said, also raising her voice.

That seemed to actually intimidate him, since he quickly started to pack up his clothes again and made an exit. They both gave a sigh of relief, sitting down on the wooden benches.

“This is the second time your pack has had to save me from some asshole alphas,” Veronica grunted. “I apologise for how much unwanted attention I’ve been getting lately.”

“Eh, it’s not your fault,” Heather said. “They’re probably just attracted to your scent - it is actually pretty strong.”

“I’ve got scent blockers on. How is it so strong?” She rubbed her neck self-consciously. Heather shrugged.

“Are you in heat or whatever betas call it?”

“I don’t know. Probably. My roommate thinks I am, and he keeps telling me to find another hookup.”

Heather snickered. “Does he think that hookups are the only cure for heat?”

“No, he’s not stupid. He’s actually a very responsible omega when it comes to heats - he spends  _ so _ much time on his nests, it’s honestly kind of ridiculous.”

“Hey, don’t knock our nesting methods.” Heather lightly punched her. “They’re personal.”

“Usually I wouldn’t, but I’m allowed to make fun of him,” Veronica said.

“I see.” Heather tilted her head, smirking slightly. “So, are you going to take his advice, or…?”

“What? No! No no, I’m not really…” She paused. “I mean, I know your first impression of me will make you disagree, but I’m honestly not one for hooking up or whatever.”

“You’re right, my first impression of you makes me strongly disagree.”

Veronica rolled her eyes, staring at her clothes and sheets as they spun around in the washing machine. “That was a one-off. I saw an opportunity and I took it.” Hearing her words out loud suddenly sounded a lot more bad than she intended, and Alpha Heather’s words from yesterday played in her head. “Not… not that I used Heather to get off, that’s not what I-”

“I know what you mean.” Heather patted her on her shoulder empathetically. “Don’t worry, as someone who gets pretty bad heats, I completely understand letting your instincts take over.”

Veronica sheepishly pursed her lips. “Right.”

Heather then clicked her tongue. “You busy today?”

“No? Why?”

“Heather and Heather both have classes today, so I’m in the dorm alone.” She shrugged. “If you’re not free, I was just gonna ask if you wanted to hang.”

Veronica arched a brow skeptically. “The last time you saw me, I was knotted with your packmate. Now you wanna hang out?”

“Sure, why not?”

Veronica considered her offer, and in fairness, she had no plans to fill the rest of her day with. She could always go home and masturbate again, she supposed, but she didn’t exactly want to tempt her heat into getting any more intense than it already was. She could also watch netflix, but she found it difficult to sit through a whole forty minute episode by herself - she preferred to do it with JD.

“Yeah, okay. I have nothing else planned.” She shrugged.

“Cool. You ever watched  _ Orange Is The New Black? _ ”

“Yeah, I watched it with my friends,” she said. “Finished season 7 the other week.”

“Oh, shit, no spoilers please, I just started season 5.”

Veronica snickered. “Oh, you poor thing. That’s the  _ worst _ season.”

“So I’ve heard.” She leaned towards her. “Would you mind sitting through it again, or…”

“I’ll do my best.”

* * *

After throwing her laundry into her room, Veronica followed Heather back to her dorm. Upon walking in, everything other than the couch looked the same - granted, there was still a nest on it, but it seemed a lot more messy and moved over to one side, with less blankets and more pillows. As soon as she threw her own laundry into one of the bedrooms - she assumed her own - Heather immediately nestled into it, resting her head against the pile of pillows leaning against the arm of the sofa and curling up so her whole body could fit on the blanket that Veronica was pretty sure was made from sheep’s wool. She was kind of jealous of how comfortable she looked, to be honest.

“So, who’s your favourite character?” Heather asked as she pulled out a remote from under her pillows.

“Alex.”

“Ah. That makes sense.”

“Meaning?”

“She has your vibes.”

Veronica raised a brow, but she took it as a compliment either way. “Who’s yours?”

“Taystee.”

Veronica immediately grimaced.

“What?” Heather shot up from her nest and stared at her. “Please don’t tell me she dies.”

“No... it’s not death I’m thinking of.”

Heather let out a relieved sigh. “Okay, good. I’m still shaken from Poussey’s death.” She frowned. “She was Heather’s favourite.”

“Okay, I have no idea how you can tell who’s who.”

“I mean, it’s easy for me because I only have two to pick from,” Heather said. “Also, I’m talking about the one you fucked.”

Veronica immediately flushed, which caused Heather to laugh, before turning on the second episode of season 5. Why exactly Veronica agreed to this, she wasn’t sure - season 5 had been so  _ painful _ to sit through. But in fairness, Heather did seem like a fun individual - full of snark and sarcasm. She reminded her of Betty, in more ways than one, so spending the afternoon with her didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

“Have you had lunch, by the way?” Heather asked. Veronica shook her head, and Heather paused the show to roll her eyes.

“You don’t have to get me anything, I should be fine.”

“Nope, I’ll throw a pizza in.”

Veronica rolled her eyes at how insistent she sounded, but didn’t argue. She was actually hungry, she just figured she’d be fine skipping a meal. She heard rustling in the kitchen as Heather grabbed a pizza from the freezer, and Veronica noticed that even though she was gone, she could still smell her scent just the same. As she leaned closer to her nest, she realised why. It was almost as if her nest was made to trap her scent - it was kind of fascinating, really.

“Okay, should be ready in twenty minutes.” Heather sat back down in her nest and huddled up against the pillows again, and played the show. They sat in a surprisingly comfortable silence as it played, with one or the other occasionally making a quip about the characters. Heather especially liked to make her hatred for the guards known - and Veronica couldn’t blame her. Sure, they were kept hostage in this season in awful, awful conditions, and she absolutely thought the torture aspect was too far. But some of those guards she had little pity for, especially the one who got shot.

She let all of that known to Heather, by the way.

“I feel bad for McCullough though,” Heather said. “She wasn’t that bad - she gave Maritza tampons.”

“Yeah, same here.” She held back telling Heather what McCullough would end up doing to her favourite character in season 7.

The pizza was eventually ready, and Heather hurried up to go and get it. Apparently she actually owned a pizza cutter? Veronica usually just used a knife and then gave up halfway, so ended up taking bites out of half of a whole pizza. Yes, it was as messy and inconvenient as it sounded, and yes, she told Heather about that too. She looked at her with disgust.

“You’re probably one of those freaks who doesn’t cut her toast into triangles,” she said.

“Why would I waste my time doing that?”

“ _ It’s better that way. _ ”

“I’m not trying to win Gordon Ramsay’s heart, so I don’t particularly care.”

Heather gasped. “Are you telling me you’ve watched  _ Kitchen Nightmares? _ Or  _ Hell’s Kitchen? _ ”

“Obviously. Who doesn’t binge watch those clips on youtube until like 3am?”

“Okay, so, if I ever find you knotted with Heather again and you end up staying the night, that’s something we should definitely do.”

While the mere idea of pre-planning a hookup made Veronica shift uncomfortably, she still quite liked the idea of actually falling into that pit with someone else.

“Assuming that’ll happen again,” Veronica quipped, and they turned their attention back to the show and mindlessly ate their respective slices of pizza. They somehow managed to reach the third episode fairly quickly, and Veronica had also finished her food by then, and her small appetite had made her completely full and slightly tired. That, and Heather’s scent was just so welcoming, it somehow relaxed her more than chamomile tea ever could.

“You’re purring.”

Veronica’s eyes shot open. They hadn’t been closed, just drooping a little.

“I am?”

Heather snickered. “Just a little.”

“Oh.” She scratched the side of her neck. “Ignore me.”

Heather lightly chuckled, and Veronica decided it was a nice sound. “It’s fine - I don’t mind at all.”

She could see Heather sitting up in the corner of her eye, making her suddenly closer, along with her scent. A tingling sensation returned just below her ears, and she began to scratch as subtly as possible. It was kind of hard, though, since she winced every time her nails grazed an area that was bruised - which was practically all over her neck.

Luckily Heather didn’t seem to notice, but she realised she was distracted by something. Not by the show, because suddenly her pupils were large and her nose was twitching, and her scent had changed. She was emitting something that smelled just as good, only now Veronica felt incredibly drawn to it. The urge to dive towards her scent glands was strong, but she resisted, because that would be fucking weird an invasive. Unfortunately, though, it only seemed to make her itching worse, and she could no longer hide it. She began scratching vigorously over her shoulders, neck and collarbone, unable to hold back a groan of frustration as she did so. She kept doing it, until she felt a soft, silky texture brush over her shoulder, and when she looked down to see Heather rubbing the side of her head against her, she squeaked in surprise. Strangely, though, the soothing on that arm soothed.

When realising what she’d done, Heather yelped and flinched back, shaking her head with little creases on her nose that Veronica found kind of cute.

“Sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking all that straight.”

Veronica’s logical side was telling her to say “don’t worry about it” and to just go back to the show, but then the itching returned to her shoulder, this time burning even harder, and Heather’s scent was only luring her in more. She tossed logic and reason aside and leaned forward to hesitantly return Heather’s gesture, which earned her a soft purring sound rumbling in her throat. Veronica realised she was purring too, and it only grew louder when Heather slipped her head just under Veronica’s chin. With a little force, Veronica was pushed onto the sofa’s arm, while Heather continued to rub herself against her chest.

It was a strange feeling. Much different to when McNamara had touched her - Heather was far more gentle and sensual, never touching anywhere that was a little bit too intimate, only places that would send tingles up her spine when grazed over by soft hands. Veronica’s eyes fluttered shut when she felt hands run up and down her sides and light breathing grazing over her collarbone, and she let her own hands curl around Heather’s tiny form - gosh, she was so small. Over a foot shorter than her, probably. Maybe that made it even better, though, because she was the perfect size for her to just pull on top of her and hold close like she sometimes did with her duvet when she didn’t know where to put her arms.

Heather ended up exposing her neck slightly to her, and Veronica obliged, leaning forward to scent her, and oh, she smelled  _ really _ good. She wasn’t sure how, considering she was friends with three omegas and had been around them all while they went through heat, but it was almost irresistible, and she didn’t even notice herself nipping and sucking lightly near her scent glands until Heather let out a content sigh through her nose. She then felt Heather lean forward to scent her back, this time for real. Veronica left herself drift off into bliss, feeling herself lose proper touch with all her senses with Heather blocking them all from processing anything more. It was nice.

Even though she knew she’d probably deny it later.

“Hmm… you’re missing the show,” Veronica soon mumbled, her eyes opening slightly to see and equally dazed Heather grinning down at her.

“It’s a bad season anyway.”

“Mmm, but you should still watch it. It’s important.”

Rolling her eyes light-heartedly, Heather slid off of Veronica and nudged her further back on the couch, still loudly purring against her as she changed their position so she was being spooned. Veronica let it happen, continuously rubbing herself against Heather’s neck and sighing at the feeling of her hair against her cheek.

“Your hair’s so soft,” she murmured, burying her nose into it. Oh, that’s where the wild berries scent came from. So nice.

“So’s yours,” Heather said softly, finding Veronica’s arms to wrap around herself as if she were a blanket. Veronica knew she was usually not one for cuddling, especially not strangers, but Heather just felt so nice and all her instincts were telling her to just pull her even closer, so that’s exactly what she did. Heather made a noise of approval, sinking into her shoulders and wriggling a little to get more comfortable, until the two of them finally relaxed, Veronica as the big spoon.

Most notably, Veronica’s itching had completely vanished, and the only thing that remained was the constant wondering of how much more comfortable this would be if they were on the other end of the couch, in Heather’s nest. She shook her head at the thought, though, knowing full well that the nest was for Heather and Heather alone, and besides, the warmth of Heather against her and her scent surrounding her completely, basically encasing her, was enough to keep her satisfied.

So much so, that she’d become so light-headed that she couldn’t keep her eyes open if she tried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i haven't actually finished season 7 of oitnb yet please don't spoil it for me


	5. Chapter 5 - The Right Amount of Protective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chandler comes home to find an unexpected guest.

Heather was exhausted. She absolutely hated lectures - they were so hard to focus on, especially when she had her phone at hand. The whole time she couldn’t stop thinking about finally returning to her dorm, seeing Heather waiting for her and running over to scent her and curl up in whatever nest she may have made today. Even just the thought was making her smile to herself as she stood alone in the elevator.

The door opened and she hurried towards her dorm, not caring that her feet ached from not only the walk to her lecture building and back in heels, but also due to walking down to the local store to pick up some general items, such as air freshener, new fabrics and also some snacks. She unlocked the door and stepped in, and almost immediately, she knew something was wrong.

A new scent was in the room - except it wasn’t new at all, she recognised it instantly. Her nose wrinkling, she closed and locked the door as quietly as she could, dropped her bag on the floor, slipped her heels off and stalked further into the living room.

On the couch, she got her answer. Veronica Sawyer, as expected, was here. What wasn’t expected, however, was seeing her spooning her packmate on the sofa, both of them snoring softly as the TV continued to play what looked like  _ Orange Is The New Black. _ Euch, season 5. The worst season.

She hovered around the couch, eyeing the pair suspiciously. The room smelled very strongly of their scents, and not just any scents. An enticing one from Duke was everywhere, and it made her itch to shove Veronica off the couch so she could wrap her arms around her instead. Intertwined with Duke’s scent, also, was Veronica’s; it was incredibly strong, and it was one that made Heather feel both challenged and filled with a thirst. She shook that last one away, though, because she was more concerned that some random beta was nuzzling right into her omega’s scent glands right now. She tapped the remote to pause the show - also going off whatever episode they were on because who knows how much Heather had missed, so spoilers - and stepped closer, standing over both of them. They were both fast asleep and hadn’t noticed her presence, so she did the first thing her instincts told her to.

Gently - much more gentle than she wanted to be - she took hold of Veronica’s sleeve and slipped her arm out of Heather’s hold, which was surprisingly tight. Her unwrapping her fingers from her wrist seemed to be enough to stir Heather, since her nose twitched in confusion and her eyes blinked open.

“Heather?” She wiped her eyes and glanced up at her. “What are you-”

Wordlessly, Heather took hold of her hand and guided her onto her feet. She let out a protest - clearly she was comfortable - but she didn’t listen. Instead, she guided her further down the couch, so, only a few steps, and sat her back down in the nest. She followed through quickly, wrapping around her in a similar position to how she had been with Veronica, only she actually intertwined their legs and wrapped both arms around her abdomen and chest possessively. She buried her nose into her neck, disgruntled to be hit with Veronica’s scent - wow, she actually  _ scented _ her? And was that a fucking  _ mark? _ The nerve. At least Heather seemed to enjoy her furious scenting, exposing more of it to give Heather free reign.

“Mmm… someone’s a little needy,” she sighed, pressing herself against her and a low purr rumbling in her throat. Heather continued to scent her, nipping and licking her neck to coat her in her scent.

“You’re mine,” she growled. “Not hers.”

Duke chuckled, pressing her cheek against her forehead. “Chill, it’s not my fault she smelled good.”

Heather groaned disdainfully, continuing to rub herself against her scent glands and tightening her grip on her. “Yeah, well, you’re  _ my _ packmate, and I get wary when complete nobodies decide to show up and scent themselves all over either of you.”

“She’s actually quite nice.” Duke purred more as Heather planted kisses up her neck and behind her ear. “I see little harm in indulging her.”

“Hmph.” She finally looked back to Veronica, who seemed to be a little distressed in her sleep now that she had nothing to hold. Her fingers curled into the couch and her nose had the slightest wrinkles, and she let out a grunt. “ _ Just hookups _ my  _ ass. _ ”

“Hey, whatever the hell we did before felt really good,” Duke told her, craning her head around to give her a kiss on the cheek. “She was getting all itchy again, but she smelled  _ really _ good, so I ended up scenting her and all, and it’s like it completely relaxed her.”

Heather raised a brow skeptically. “Doesn’t change the fact that she  _ touched _ you.” She pressed them both against the nest. “You know I don’t like people getting too intimate until they show they’re not trouble.”

“You’re far too protective, Heather,” Duke said, rolling her eyes. “But as it’s cute, I’ll allow it.”

Heather purred against Heather’s neck. “Is it so bad to want to keep you all to myself?” She wrapped a leg around her waist. “No handsy betas getting their scent all over what’s mine?”

“On one hand, omegas are not property, but on the other hand, that’s kind of hot, so yeah, I’m your property.”

Heather smirked against her neck. “You know what I  _ really _ mean.”

“I do.”

Interrupting their moment was Veronica, of course, who seemed to no longer be able to stay asleep without the company of Heather -  _ now that’s just too bad _ \- and drowsily she began to scratch herself. Duke sighed.

“See, this is what I mean,” she said. “Is this common in betas?”

“How the hell would I know?” Her shoulders raised and her lip began to curl, completely instinctively. She knew Veronica wasn’t a threat, but she was still a newcomer on her turf who was maybe a foot apart from her and her omega, and that was only made worse by how they were both curled up in a nest. No, it didn’t matter that Veronica would likely just wake up and say, “um, hi,” because again -  _ way _ too close to her nesting with her omega.

Finally Veronica opened her eyes and stretched her arms out, her joints clicking as she did so. She looked around the room, still dazed, until her eyes landed on Heather and Heather, and suddenly she became alert. When she didn’t move away straight away, Heather let out a snarl and bared her fangs. Veronica flinched backwards, and Duke hit Heather’s arm to get her to stop.

“Don’t mind her, she’s kinda protective.”

“ _ Kinda? _ ” She eyed Heather up and down, which only made her gnash her teeth even more. She felt a little bad after doing that, since Veronica pressed herself right up against the other end of the couch to get away from her, so as she was clearly respecting the boundaries Heather had lay out, she relaxed and buried her chin into Duke’s hair.

“Heather, quit it, she’s not a threat,” Duke scolded.

“We don’t know that.”

“Yeah,  _ I’m _ the threat here,” Veronica scoffed, hugging her knees close. Duke sighed.

“She gets very touchy when strangers go near her packmates, especially when they’re in their nests.”

“Must she  _ snarl _ at me like that?” Veronica asked. “I wasn’t even doing anything.”

“You were doing  _ something _ with her,” Heather said, leering at her. “And whatever it was, I don’t trust it.”

Veronica raised a brow at her, almost like she was going to challenge her.

“I got a little hormonal, okay?” she grumbled. Heather picked up on the uncertainty in her tone, and it only made her distrust her more.

“Happens to the best of us,” Duke said with a shrug. “Don’t worry, I quite enjoyed it, but don’t tell Heather that.”

“I’m  _ right here. _ ”

“Sshhhh.” She reached an arm around and cupped her face, covering her ear and holding her close. She would have protested, but Duke touching her felt so nice, she just fluttered her eyes closed and let her chin drop onto her neck. She instead opted to listen to their conversation continue confident enough that Veronica wouldn’t try and invade their space while she couldn’t see her. “Again, sorry about her, she’s a very protective Alpha.”

“A very typical alpha, if you ask me,” Veronica grunted, causing Heather to blink open an eye to glare at her. She saw Veronica was standing up now, and when she caught her eye, she lowered her gaze. Satisfied by her subordination, she closed her eyes again. “Okay, uh, clearly I’ve overstayed my welcome, so I better get going.”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to do that-” Heather protested. “If you want to stay for any longer, then you can.”

“No, no it’s… it’s fine.” Veronica sounded incredibly uncomfortable, but Heather didn’t care. She was just glad she was leaving. “Thanks for inviting me over, but my roomie will be back by now anyway. I better get going.”

“Oh. Alright, then.” There was disappointment in her tone, and Heather did start to feel a  _ little _ bad for interrupting them and ultimately chasing Veronica away, but it didn’t change her disdain for Veronica in the slightest. She let Heather escape her grasp, even though she grumbled at the loss of her warmth, and let her go and unlock the door for her. Soon enough she heard the door click, and returning to the couch was only one pair for footsteps. Heather’s defenses finally lifted, and she smiled contently as she held out her arms so that Duke could fall back into them.

“Was chasing her off necessary, Heather?” Duke sighed as she settled in her hold again. Heather curled back around her, only this time it was less protective, and more out of a need to nourish.

“I don’t trust her,” she mumbled, rubbing her cheek more gently against her neck. Duke began to purr again, and Heather felt her smile against her.

“Why not? She just seems like a chill, albeit quiet beta.”

Heather slowly opened her eyes and gave her a serious look.

“I don’t know what she wants with either of you,” she said. “And even worse, I don’t think she knows either.”

Duke tilted her head. “What makes you say that?"

Heather rolled her eyes. “Just yesterday she told me she just wanted to hookup with Heather.” She closed her eyes again, burying her face further into her black curls. “But then today, I find her all snuggled up with my omega? It’s suspicious to me, is all.”

“I still think you’re overthinking things,” Duke said. “But I’ve come to expect that from you.”

“Better to be on high alert than no alert at all.”

Duke snorted, before making a rustling sound. Heather opened her eyes out of curiosity, and saw she had one arm scrounging around under the pile of pillows leaning against the arm of the sofa. She gasped.

“Oh, is this a hoarding nest?”

“Yeah, it’s not exactly made for cuddling,” Duke said. “You want anything, by the way?”

“Do you have chocolate?” Heather asked. “Specifically white chocolate.”

“Yep, just might be a bit melted.”

“That’s fine.”

After feeling around for a bit, Duke pulled out a bar of white chocolate that did indeed bend a little in the packet, but honestly, that was the best state for it to be in. She was starving after hours without any snacks, so she basically tore into it and sucked on the first couple of squares.

“If you want to cuddle properly, I can pull the couch out and make a proper nest.”

“Yes,” Heather said with her mouth full. “I would like that.”

“Then you’re going to have to help me.”

“Oh. Less fun.” She pouted. “But I’ll do it because I love you.”

* * *

“This fucking  _ bitch. _ ”

Veronica stepped into her dorm, fully expecting JD to be sitting on the couch, and luckily she was right. He looked up from his phone and sat up, snickering a little.

“What the hell happened to you?” He looked her up and down. “And why do you smell so different?”

“It’s a long story.” She slammed the door behind her and scratched furiously at her neck and chest. “God, I hate Heather, I hate her so much.”

“Oh, more drama. I’m here for it. Should I order another Domino’s?” He shuffled along the couch and patted the space next to him. “Did she release a hoard of fleas onto you?”

Veronica ignored his quip and plopped down onto the couch, still itching. She was sure it was even worse than last night, somehow.

“Okay, so I go and hang out with Heather - Duke, to be exact, not McNamara,” she said. “We watch Orange Is The New Black season 5, and fall asleep because everyone hates that season, I wake up, and Alpha Heather is just  _ there. _ ” The whole time she didn’t stop itching. “She’s suddenly all curled up with Heather in a nest that was  _ already there _ when I arrived, as if I’m going to fucking invade their space any time soon.” She groaned loudly, leaning back against the couch and folding her arms, occasionally giving into the itching again. “She’s so… so  _ entitled. _ She thinks she can just boss me around, that I can’t even  _ sit next _ to her pack without causing trouble.”

JD seemed to be loving every second of her rant, which was something, at least.

“God, what did you even do to get her so mad?”

“I-” Veronica paused, unsure if she wanted to admit what had happened. Suddenly growing sheepish, the anger in her tone faded. “I dunno, I got kinda hormonal, which then made Heather hormonal, and we just…”

“You just…?”

She winced. “We um… cuddled on the couch,” she grumbled. “And scented each other. And fell asleep.”

A short pause that brought way too much tension into the room, before JD started laughing incredibly hard.

“Okay, you’re gonna hate me for saying this,” JD eventually said once he caught his breath.

“Oh no."

“I kinda side with Alpha Heather on this one.”

“ _ What? _ ” She glared at him with disbelief. “That asshole was fucking snapping and snarling at me as if I was going to attack them in their sleep! It was honestly kind of  _ scary. _ ”

“Okay, a little harsh, for sure,” JD said. “But in fairness, she did just find you showing copious amounts of affection to her packmate. I’d be a little on edge too.”

“But I didn’t mean to!” Veronica protested. “I wasn’t doing anything  _ bad, _ I just… I don’t know, I wouldn’t even usually  _ do _ that!”

“I know.” JD eyed her up and down. “This heat’s really getting to you, huh?”

“I’m so sick of it,” she groaned, scratching her neck furiously, no doubt scraping some of her concealer off with it. “I don’t understand why it’s so bad this month - I don’t understand why it’s so  _ early. _ ”

“At least you don’t have a migraine.”

“Do  _ not _ say that, you are asking the universe to fuck with me more than it already is!”

“Good point.” He lifted his phone. “Say, you wanna order a pizza? It might take your mind off of things.”

“Another pizza? Don’t we have food here?”

“Yeah, but as if either of us are going to cook any of it.”

Veronica rolled her eyes. “Make sure you get garlic bread with it.”

“Obviously.”

* * *

When Heather stepped into her dorm, exhausted from her day of classes and working out, she was hit with the fading, but still lingering scent of Veronica. She was surprised and confused; she didn’t think she’d come here for any other reason than to see her. The scent reminded her of their last meeting, actually. Enticing and welcoming, ready to lure her in. It only made her more curious, though before she could ask any questions, she was distracted by the sight of her packmates huddled up on the couch with the extension out, surrounded by bundles of pillows, blankets, stuffed animals and clothes.

In the corner was clearly a stash of snacks all piled in a bowl made out of a blanket being swirled into an upside-down dome shape, and in the middle of the nest was a mound of pillows that Chandler was draped over like a ragdoll. It certainly didn’t look comfortable, but Heather could in fact vouch that lying lifelessly over a pile of plush materials was incredibly relaxing somehow. Sitting in front of the mount was Duke, who had Chandler’s head resting on top of hers and her arms wrapped around her neck and chest.

She kicked her shoes off to make her presence known, and both heads snapped towards her and lit up.

“Heather!” Duke exclaimed, escaping Chandler’s grip to shuffle to the edge of the couch, with Chandler following close behind. Heather grinned and hopped onto the couch, letting Duke press her nose against her scent glands on one side of her neck. Meanwhile, Chandler crawled over to her and scented the other side, nipping at her skin as she did so. She purred at the feeling, scenting them both in return. When scent Duke, she noticed that the scent of Veronica was particularly strong, which made her even more curious.

“Has Veronica been here recently?” she asked. While Duke gave a nod, Chandler just huffed in a haughty manner, before crawling back over to the mound of pillows and flattening it out a little, hopping onto it to check it was comfortable for her pack, doing so a little disgruntledly. Heather tilted her head. “What’s gotten her in a bad mood?”

“I’m not in a bad mood!” Chandler protested, while Duke rolled her eyes.

“She doesn’t like Veronica that much.”

“What?” Heather pouted as she wrapped an arm around Duke’s waist to pull her close, making her giggle as she did so. “Why not? She’s cute.”

“She’s  _ suspicious,” _ Chandler retorted, curling up on her side on the layout of pillows she had made and gesturing for her packmates to come over. They both did it without question, with Heather putting an arm over her and resting her head on her side, while Duke curled up the opposite way to them both, allowing Chandler to have her waist to prop her head up on. Duke rested her own head on Heather’s thighs and pressed herself up against them both, wrapping herself in their scents and comfort.

“Suspicious how?” Heather asked, tilting her head at Chandler. “You hardly know her.”

“Neither do you,” Chandler said. “Look, this is my pack, and I’m right to be wary about betas who fuck one of my girlfriends, and then  _ cuddles _ with the other.”

“Wait, cuddles?”

“Hey, she was being hormonal, and also she smelled really good,” Duke said. “We didn’t  _ mean _ to cuddle on the couch, it just kind of happened.” She twisted herself around to eye her. “You know, kinda like how you two just ended up fucking?”

“See, what the hell is she  _ doing _ to both of you?” Chandler muttered. Heather rolled her eyes.

“She isn’t doing anything to us. She’s just good company!”

“In fairness, yeah. She actually offered to watch season 5 of Orange Is The New Black with me, despite having watched it already. Talk about a good deed.”   


“That  _ is _ a good deed.” She looked back to Chandler. “See, Heather? She’s not a bad person.”

“Okay, so offering to do that  _ is _ nice of her and all, but I…” She bit her lip. Both Heather and Duke looked at her curiously.

“You…?” Duke prompted.

“I don’t want either of you to get hurt,” she grumbled, muffling her voice by pressing her mouth against Duke’s side. “I don’t know what exactly she wants with either of you, and that makes me uncomfortable.”

Heather exchanged a look of sympathy with Duke, before crawling up to nuzzle Chandler’s neck gently.

“We appreciate your concern, Heather, but we’re smart enough to not let ourselves get hurt,” Heather murmured. She felt Chandler relax under her touch. “She’s just a friend who I personally find cute and kinda hot. If anything progressed, I’d obviously let you get involved. You’re not just my pack leader; you’re my girlfriend.”

A smile formed on Chandler’s lips, and she broke the cuddling formation to roll onto her back, Both her packmates crawled up to nuzzle her warmly, and a low, content rumble could be heard from her throat.

“See, this is what I was saying,” Duke said, gazing down at her with an impish look. “You’re far too protective.”   


“I am the  _ right amount _ of protective,” Chandler retorted, pulling tongues at her. “And all I am saying, is if she tries any bullshit at all, I’ll kill her.”

“Don’t kill anyone,” Heather whined. “Especially not Veronica. She’s legitimately nice!”

“Hmmm.” Chandler frowned. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“You haven’t spent more than ten minutes with her,” Duke said. “No shit you don’t see it.”

When Duke and Heather both lay down on Chandler’s chest, facing each other, Heather whispered to Duke,

“So, by ‘hormonal’, do you mean she’d be up for another hookup?” She leaned a bit closer. “Is she still in heat?”

Duke snorted, shoving Heather away. “Why are you so horny for her?”

“Hey, our hookup was  _ hot, _ okay? There’s a reason I didn’t pull out!”

“Please pull out next time,” Chandler groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I don’t want to be in Duke’s shoes afterwards. Ever.”

Heather rolled her eyes. “If I do it, I’ll lock the door this time.”

“No you won’t! You never lock the fucking door!”

“I’m not  _ used _ to it! We all live together and we’ve all seen one another naked, when was the last time  _ any _ of us locked the door?”

Chandler bit the inside of her cheek, giving no reply.

“Exactly.”

“Oh, by the way, Heather,” Duke said, nudging her. “Her dorm room is F15.”

“Oh! Thank you!”

Chandler let out a long groan, burying her face into her hands.

“Why are you both working together to seduce a random beta?”

“Heather, you have to admit, she’s a  _ little _ pretty.”

Chandler stared at her for a moment, before creating a tiny little space between her fingers to say, “A little bit.” Grinning in satisfaction, Heather huddled into the crook of her neck.

“How long before you need to go to work?” Duke then asked, mimicking Heather and snuggling against her neck. Chandler glanced at the clock on the wall.

“An hour,” she replied. “Wanna listen to music for a bit?”

Duke nodded, closing her eyes and clutching onto Chandler’s clothes possessively. Heather could hardly blame her - she didn’t want her to leave, but at least they could follow her to her work and sneak some free drinks in the bar. Not as good as pack cuddles, but definitely something they all looked forward to. She felt Chandler stretch out across the length of the couch to grab her phone that had been sitting at the edge of the nest, and she quickly connected it to the speakers through bluetooth before dropping her phone to wrap her arms around them both. Heather sighed contentedly, letting her eyes close as the tune of  _ Lonely Hearts Club _ from what was objectively Marina’s best album begin to play. It was upbeat enough to keep them all awake, but not too lively to not allow them to relax in each other’s company.

And as she listened to her packmate’s light breathing, a part of her wished that she’d been able to experience the feeling of Veronica holding her, like she’d done with Heather. As intimate as she’d been with her in their hookup, it had all been so rough and hard. She knew hoping for anything more was stepping into slightly dangerous territory in terms of feelings, but the idea of experiencing something that contrasted to all of that?

It brought a smile to her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ewww what the hell, the heathers are all in a healthy relationship while veronica isn't??? fuck off this is bullshit
> 
> https://heathersgameoftag.tumblr.com/


	6. Chapter 6 - Social Cues Are Hard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica says yes to a date, but accidentally.

“Rough night last night, Veronica?”

Veronica pulled her head back up from hanging over the counter to look at Martha.

“Yeah.”

Martha gave her a sympathetic look as she scrubbed a glass clean with a cloth. “You look exhausted.”

“I am,” she groaned, straightening herself up from the hunched over position she’d been locked in for the past ten minutes. It had been a surprisingly slow day in their coffee shop, so she didn’t have to be constantly running around putting people’s orders together 24/7 at the very least.

“Is there something going on?”

“No. Well, I guess.” She picked herself off of the counter and moved further to the back of the station, with Martha following her. She couldn’t have any customers eavesdropping on her personal life, after all. “I’m currently in heat, I think, and it has  _ not _ been fun.”

“Oh no,” Martha said empathetically, giving her a pat on the shoulder. There were few people who Veronica would let touch her in a non-sexual way, and Martha was one of them. “You getting migraines, hot flashes, the whole bunch?"

“Migraines no, which I’m grateful for,” she said. “Rashes, big yes. It kept me up all night, and only stopped at maybe 4am.”

“Itching? That’s new.” Martha’s brows knitted. “Also, I thought you had a heat a month ago, didn’t you? Don’t they come every two or three months?”

“I guess this one’s early.”

“That’s concerning.”

Veronica shrugged. “It is what it is.”

“Do you have a heat nest, at least?”

Veronica scoffed. “Since when do betas nest?”

“Well, omegas nest,” Martha said. “And though not many of them do, alphas nest too.”

“Well, I’ve never seen a betas guide to nesting in my life,” Veronica said. “Not in school, not online, not ever.”

“Not online?” Martha raised her brows. “Are you following the right people? I’m sure there are plenty of nesting tips on there.”   


“You mean, on Tumblr? I bet.” She rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m sure there are plenty of betas out there who actually do nest, which is fine, but it’s not a requirement. If it was, we would have learned how in elementary school with everyone else.” She let out a long yawn. “Honestly, I’ll be fine. I’ve gone through loads of heats without a single issue - I don’t see why any would possibly come up now just because my body decided to act up this month.”

Martha looked doubtful, but she didn’t press on. “If you say so.”

Just as their conversation came to an end, the bell on their door rang as someone stepped in. One glance, and Veronica recognised her instantly, and already she was walking towards the cash register - something she never did so willingly.

“Hi, stranger, you want a frappuccino?” she asked with a sarcastic tone. The woman who stopped at the counter gave a snicker.

“Actually, I was just going to ask for a chocolate muffin,” she said. “Coffee isn’t really my thing.”

Veronica raised a brow. “Heather, one of the first things you said to me was if you could have a coffee.”

“That was different! I needed something to stall time,” Heather said, leaning over the counter. Her arms rested on the marble surface, and Veronica got a good view of her toned biceps. She cursed her silently for not wearing long sleeves, because goddammit it was distracting.

“I suppose so.” Veronica also rested her arms on the counter, leaning forward slightly so their faces were only inches apart. She caught a whiff of her sweet scent again; it hadn’t changed since she last saw her. “So what’s your order, just a muffin?”

“Well, that, and something else from behind the counter.”

Veronica tilted her head. “Oh?”

“You!” Heather giggled sweetly and tapped her on her nose. Veronica flinched at the sudden contact, scrunching up her nose. “I was wondering if maybe you were free tonight?”

“I think so.” She raised a brow. “Why?”

“I was just thinking, maybe you’d wanna… go out tonight?” She ran her fingers through the longer side of her hair. “We could go for a drink.”

“A drink?” She blinked in surprise. “Well, I kinda have another shift tomorrow…”

“What time?”

“Um… one.” Well, when she said it like that, it didn’t sound that bad. So long as she didn’t get blackout drunk, she’d be fine. “I’ll be fine, I’m sure. What time were you thinking?”

“Is ten okay?”

“Sure.”

“Great!” She beamed a very pretty smile, her fangs visible and somehow in no way threatening. Only she could make fangs look  _ cute. _ “So, about that muffin?”

“Hm?  _ Oh, _ right.” Veronica retrieved what looked like the best chocolate muffin they had and handed it over. “Anything else?”

“Hmmm…” Heather hummed, eyeing the treats on display. “What type of cheesecake is that?”

“Cherry.”

“Can I have a slice of that too?”

“To go?”

“Yeah.” She smiled. “Heather really likes cherries.”

Veronica arched a brow. “Which Heather?”

“Chandler.”

She stared at her for a moment. “You mean, Alpha Heather?”

“Yeah, her. That’s her second name.”

“Right.” Veronica was half tempted to somehow sabotage her dessert as some petty revenge, but that wouldn’t be very professional of her, so she reluctantly took a neat slice and put it into a plastic container. “Want to get anything for Heather?”

“Hmmm… she’ll probably want a cookie. She likes stashing those in her nests.”

“Don’t the crumbs get everywhere?”

“She keeps it in a tub."

“Thank God. What type of cookie?”

“Gingerbread! She likes gingerbread.”

Veronica grabbed it and slipped it into a paper bag, along with her muffin. The cheesecake was kept separate.

“Nine dollars forty five.”

Heather paid, not once letting her smile falter. It was honestly sort of fascinating.

“I’ll see you later?” she chimed, grabbing her items and waving goodbye. Veronica waved back, staring after her wistfully. It was almost like she took the sunshine with her, because suddenly her job became a lot more dull again. As she leaned on the counter, she was surprised with a hip bump from Martha, who was giving her a cheeky look.

“What?” she asked.

“Looks like you have  _ plans. _ ” She grinned. “That’s exciting.”   


“Uh, yeah. It is.” She raised a brow. “Just… hanging out with a friend.”

“ _ Hanging out, _ huh?”

“...Yes?” she said, confused. “What else would it be?”

* * *

“Veronica, she asked you on a  _ date. _ ” JD buried his face into his hands. Veronica stared at him, bewildered.

“A  _ date? _ ” she echoed. “Are you sure?”

“We’re very sure,” Betty said, staring at her dumbfoundedly. “How do you  _ not _ interpret ‘let’s go out for drinks together’ as a date?”

“I don’t know! Give me a break, I’m bad with social cues.” She slumped on the inferior couch, away from them, mainly out of spite. Their better couch was comfier, but JD and Betty had made their own little temporary nest on it. Had they not been  _ bullying _ her right now, she’d happily join them. There was enough room, after all.

“Maybe if it was a complete stranger who asked you, I’d go easy on you, but this is the girl you’ve been crushing on for days now,” Betty said.

“And, you know, fucked,” JD added. Veronica rolled her eyes.

“I’m not  _ crushing _ on her, I’m just attracted to her.”

“ _ Right, _ ” JD scoffed. “Because there’s so much difference.”

Veronica huffed dismissively and glanced at her phone. “She’ll be here soon, I better get ready.”

“Wear something nice!” Betty called after her as she darted to her room.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Though, now knowing that this was a date, the question of what to wear suddenly daunted on her. She hadn’t been on a date since… high school? Yeah, high school. She graduated a year and a half ago, so that was worrying, come to think of it. But ever since her  _ last _ relationship as well as pack, she simply couldn’t deal with the thought of dating anyone, and so kept putting it off until it no longer became a priority. She was perfectly happy being alone now.

Still, she couldn’t possibly cancel, especially not half an hour before Heather was coming to pick her up. That would be rude. She scrounged through her wardrobe, searching for something fitting for a nice night out, but also nothing too flashy or over the top. Would a black dress and shoulderless top suffice? Probably. She threw her work clothes off, sprayed some deodorant and scent blockers on as well as a bit of perfume, then slipped into her outfit. She also applied some makeup and brush her hair out with a few seconds to spare, as soon enough, there was a knock on their door. Slipping some wedges on, she grabbed her necessities and tossed them in the pockets of a leather jacket she’d decided to throw on and darted out.

“Hey, you must be Heather.” She stepped into the front room and saw JD had answered the door for her.

“Yeah! Are you her roommate?”

“I am. I’m JD, hello.” He stepped backwards and let her in, and as soon as she stepped past him, JD shot her a  _ look. _ Veronica didn’t pay attention though, she was too distracted by Heather’s appearance. She hadn’t gone completely crazy either, but the flowy light yellow dress she wore was bright enough to turn heads. Her heels were black, matching the belt around her waist, and her blonde hair was curlier than usual and flowed over her one shoulder like silk. On her shaved side, she could see she had a  _ lot _ of piercings in her ear. Just all the way up. It was pretty hot.

“Hi, Heather! I’m Betty.” Betty called, reaching her hand over to shake it. Heather smiled and returned the gesture.

“Nice to meet you!” She turned towards Veronica and grinned happily. “Hey! Are you ready to go?”

“Mhmm.” She nodded. “You look… nice.”

“So do you!” she chirped, looking her up and down. Not in a sexual sense - just in an “I really appreciate your appearance” sense. It made her feel nicer than she cared to admit. “Are you ready to go?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’m ready.”

“Great, I’ll call an uber.” She pulled out her phone, which had one of those cases where the glitter would flow around it like a lava lamp, which Veronica found very fitting.

“You’re not driving?”

“Nope. I don’t drive. I don’t trust myself to - I have ADHD.”

“I have a motorcycle. We can just use that.”

“We’re going to a bar - you’re telling me you don’t wanna grab a drink?”

“Oh. You make a good point.”

Heather giggled and returned her attention to what she assumed was the uber app. While she was distracted, Veronica glanced over to JD and Betty, who were both watching them intently. She shot them a glare, begging them silently to not say  _ anything _ embarrassing, because they absolutely would.

“Okay! There’ll be an uber in five minutes, so we better go downstairs and wait.”

“That’s cool See you both later,” Veronica said, relieved that she seemed to be escaping any form of humiliation. Or at least, that’s what she thought, right up until they were at the door, where JD yelled out,

“Wait!”

Both of them turned around.

“Heather, I need to know,” he said, clapping his hands together. “What rank do you think Gordon Ramsay is?”

Veronica slapped her hand to her face. “ _ JD… _ ” she groaned.

“ _ Beta, _ ” Heather answered immediately, like she had already thought about it  _ a lot. _ Veronica shot her a weird look.

“Beta?”

“Not alpha?” Betty questioned.

“No, because think about it! He sweats a lot when cooking - all chefs do. No amount of scent blockers are gonna hide an  _ alpha’s _ scent in that state, and I doubt anyone who’s been around him would be willing to keep it a secret from the press. Him being a beta makes  _ way _ more sense.”

“ _ Thank _ you!” JD exclaimed. “Finally, an alpha I can agree with.”

“Okay, we should go,” Veronica said, hurrying Heather out while shooting JD one final glare. He was just snickering to himself, the bastard.

“Excuse them. They’re just like that all the time,” Veronica grumbled as they made their way down to the elevator. Heather just laughed with her incredibly sweet voice.

“I thought they were nice!”

“I’m impressed you think that after that interaction.” While standing in the elevator, another thought came to mind. “Also, how did you know which one was my dorm?”

“Oh, Heather told me!” Heather said. Veronica nodded in understanding.

“Makes sense.”  _ Hopefully she didn’t tell other Heather where I live too. She may sneak in our dorm at night and eat me, and not in the hot way. _

They both stood outside, the night air cold against her cheeks, and she could guess it was worse for Heather, since her arms were bare and her arm hairs were bristled. While they waited for their uber, they made small talk, but none of it was worth remembering - just questions about how their weeks had been going so far and such. It didn’t last long, because fortunately the uber was about a minute early, and they arrived at the bar in no time.

Now, Veronica probably should have mentioned earlier that she avoided bars and clubs like the plague, since they so easily triggered a sensory overload. They were just so  _ loud, _ filled with drunken people with no volume control and sounds and scents coming from all different directions, and as they both shoved their way through the crowd to get to the bar, Veronica absentmindedly grabbed Heather’s hand to keep herself focused on her, as well as to not let herself lose her. Too many shoulders were brushing against hers for comfort, and it was incredibly distracting.

“You okay?” Heather asked, noticing their linked hands.

“I’m fine,” Veronica replied. “It’s just loud.”

“I can relate,” Heather said with an empathetic smile. “Don’t worry, I have two seats away from the ruckus.”

“You can reserve seats here?”

“No, I just have connections.”   


Veronica wondered what she meant by that, but that thought was pushed aside when she was shown to two stools facing the bar, separate from the rest of the stools thanks to the horseshoe layout allowing them to sit apart from the longer row. It also meant they sat in a corner further away from the rest of the crowd, so Veronica felt much more disconnected from the noise.

“Okay! What do you want?”

“Hmm…” A downside to these seats was having a limited view of the menu on the wall perpendicular to them, but she could somewhat read it. “I’ll take an Ice Pick.”

“I’ve never had that,” Heather commented, gazing at her with interest. “What’s in it?”

“Ice tea and vodka.”

“Oooh! Can I have a sip?”

“Sure. What are you getting?”

“Oh, my order’s already been made.” She turned back towards the bar, and called for the bartender mixing drinks on the other side of the layout. “Heather! Over here!”

Veronica was surprised and disgruntled when she recognised the bartender as soon as she turned around. Red curly hair, sharp features and bright red lipstick were unmistakably Heather Chandler.

“ _ Huh? _ ” She blinked at her in astonishment when she drew closer, a smirk spreading on her lips as she made eye contact.

“Evening, Sawyer,” she said in her low voice. Veronica held back a scowl for McNamara’s sake.

“Evening.”

She arched a brow impishly. “You don’t look very happy to see me. I’m guessing Heather didn’t tell you I worked here.”

“No, she didn’t.” She glanced at McNamara, who guiltily looked back at her.

“I figured you wouldn’t wanna come here if I told you.”   


“Huh, you were right.”

“Okay, okay.” McNamara turned to her and lowered her voice, out of Chandler’s hearing range. “I know there’s a lot of… tension… between you two, but Heather knows how to do my drinks best!”

“It’s true. I know what my girlfriend likes.”

“Right.” As much as Veronica hated to be around her, she could understand why McNamara would want to come to a bar where the bartender was her own packmate. It just seemed convenient, and perhaps she was given a discount, which would make Veronica feel less bad if McNamara ended up paying.

“Now, what do you want?” Chandler asked, picking up a glass and cleaning it with a cloth.

“Um, Ice Pick,” she replied. “Please.”

“Sure.” She placed the clean glass on the table, before pulling out another glass from under the counter. This one was full, and happened to be a rainbow of colours. Literally, the drink was made up of several multicoloured stripes.

“Oh, it’s perfect!” McNamara chirped, her hands flapping excitedly. “Thanks, sweetie!”

Something in Chandler’s gaze melted for a moment, and she gazed at McNamara more earnestly than Veronica thought was possible.

“Anything for you, sunshine.”

Okay, well that was just gross. Go back to being an entitled bitch.

“I’ll try to not fuck your drink up out of courtesy,” Chandler then said. There we go. Rolling her eyes, Veronica turned her attention back to McNamara, now that Chandler was walking elsewhere, though not without casting a glance towards her hips and how tight her black pencil skirt was around them, so they did wonders for her figure. Too bad she was a bitch.

“What drink is that?” Veronica asked, tearing her attention away from Chandler and back to McNamara, specifically her funky coloured drink.

“Poussee cafe,” she replied. Veronica couldn’t stop the snicker that escaped her. “I promise, it’s just French for ‘coffee-pusher’.”

“I don’t need anyone pushing anymore coffee onto me,” Veronica commented. “I drink and sell way too much already.”

“Well, I don’t like coffee anyway, as you know, so I’m safe.”

“But you like alcohol?”

“Alcohol gets you drunk, coffee just makes you jittery.” She took a sip of her drink, and Veronica found herself being fascinated by how the colours stayed separate from one another. “Does anyone actually like alcohol for the flavour?”

“Me. I like the flavour.”

Heather stared at her as if she’d just confessed to three whole murders.

“What? I like strong flavours. My taste is more muted than most, I’ve found.”

“Oh, well, I can relate with that.” They both paused to think for a second, before looking back at one another and both saying,

“Hypotaste? Yeah.”

Heather giggled. “Okay, we have that in common. What about…” She hummed in thought. “Hypohearing?”

“Hyperhearing.” She tilted her head. “You’re telling me you’re  _ not _ deafened by the noise in here?”

“Nope! It’s nice hearing all the chatter at once,” she said with a smile. “Not that it can’t get overwhelming - so long as I don’t focus on too many things at once. That’s probably my ADHD though.” She then frowned. “But, also, if this is too much, we don’t have to stay here. Sorry, I didn’t consider-”   


“No, it’s fine.” She shuffled a little closer. “It’s pretty loud, but so long as we don’t dive into the crowd I’ll be okay.”

Heather bit her nails. “Okay, but say if you did have a shutdown or a meltdown, what would you want me to do? Just in case.”

“Oh, uh…” Veronica was slightly taken aback by the question. No one had ever really asked her what to do in that sort of situation before - she’d always been the one to tell other people. She knew it wasn’t anyone’s fault, they likely didn’t know to do it, not even those who she’d been in a pack with in the past. She also knew that if Heather wasn’t autistic herself, she probably wouldn’t be asking her these questions to begin with.

But she still appreciated it.

“I don’t like being touched,” Veronica began. “It’ll make me nervous, so just say my name to get my attention and lead me somewhere quiet.” She hesitated. “Also, don’t let me scratch myself. It’s a bad habit.” Her volume lowered when she said that, not that anyone could hear her over the noise. Could they? She couldn’t tell, it was just so loud.

“That’s alright! I’ll remember,” Heather said with a smile that Veronica felt like she could trust if she ever wanted to trust anyone.

“Thank you,” she said, just before a drink was slid in front of her. The mood dampened upon the return of Chandler, even though she had only come back to give her her drink.

“There you go,” she said, resting her arms on the counter. Veronica was unsure why she didn’t immediately leave again, and would have figured it out sooner had she not been leaning forward at such an angle that allowed her cleavage to be on full display. Yet again she was wearing a bralette, though this one showed off even more skin than the last one she’d seen her wear, she was pretty sure that her hair covered up more than her top, and it’s not like Veronica could complain. She was  _ very _ attractive. She could confess that, very begrudgingly.

Then she looked back up to her face, and realised that, oh, she was a bartender, wasn’t she? She wasn’t just there to bother them whenever she pleased.

“Uh, sorry, one second-” Veronica went to fumble with her belongings to search for her purse, only to be stopped by McNamara.

“It’s okay! I’ll pay.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Both Veronica and Chandler spoke at the same time, before sharing a look of disgust with one another. By then, McNamara had already pulled out her card, to which Chandler sighed, rolled her eyes, and took her card to press it against the machine. She returned the card, gave Veronica one last judgemental look, before leaving them alone again.

“Can I try your drink?” Heather chirped once they were alone. Veronica nodded, even though she hadn’t drank it herself yet. In return, Heather pushed her own drink towards her, and Veronica realised they were swapping. Heather took a sip of her’s, and hummed in approval. “That’s not bad!”

Veronica took another glance at the many layers of the cocktail, expecting something bursting with flavour, maybe a mixture of sweet and bitter. She drank it…

...It tasted awful.

She forced it down her throat and immediately pushed it back to Heather, hand over her mouth to make sure she didn’t spit it out. Heather snickered, and also returned Veronica’s drink.

“Not good?”

“ _ No. _ ”

“I guess you don’t like sweet things very much.”

“Not really.” Veronica quickly drank her own drink, washing down the flavour. “I’m guessing you do?”   


“I’ve eaten honey out of the jar with a spoon before.”

“You’re a  _ heathen. _ ”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t done a similar thing before!”

Veronica thought for a moment, then grimaced.

“Well, I have been known to drink lemon juice out the bottle…”

“Oh my God.” Heather jerked away from her in shock. “Isn’t that incredibly sour?”

“Yes.” Veronica smirked slightly. “What, couldn’t handle that?”

“Like you could handle eating a whole jar of honey.”

“Well…” Veronica could have gagged at the idea. “No, no I couldn’t.”

Heather gazed back at her victoriously, and Veronica found herself gazing at her for longer than she intended. She’d already noticed how pretty she was, but there was something about how the more intense lighting beamed down on her that made her even more stunning. Though her dress was low cut, she wished it dipped just a little further, though that was just her mind being dirtier than she would have liked. The belt was definitely a nice touch, Heather had a gorgeous figure, but she couldn’t help but feel as though the belt would make taking clothes off more difficu-

God, Veronica, what gives? Get your head out of the gutter, you’re meant to be on a date.

She dragged her gaze back up to look at Heather, only to see her pupils were more dilated than before and her nose was twitching. Veronica thickly swallowed, breathing in and catching the familiar arousing scent she had experienced before. She had to wonder where exactly it had come from, until she realised that of course, if her eyes were going to wander to her chest and immediately think “haha I wish I could see your tits” like a creep, her own scent was going to change along with her mood.

“Um…” She quickly took a gulp of her drink, trying to think of how to bury her scent back under her scent blockers. “I do just need the bathroom though, if that’s okay.”

“Hm?” Heather shook her head and blinked, her pupils shrinking down to normal size again. “Oh, yeah, sure. Let’s go.”

“Huh?” She watched her slip off her stool. “You don’t need to come with me, don’t worry.”   


“Veronica, you’re never meant to leave a girl alone in a bar.”

“You’re not?”

“No, it’s dangerous, silly.” Heather looked off into the crowd as if checking for danger, which was flattering somehow, because Veronica had always been independent and disliked people ‘looking out’ for her, so to speak, but Heather doing it felt different. Perhaps it was due to not feeling like property, and more of her actually caring about her safety. Even her resting her hand on her arm wasn’t as distressing as she usually would have found it.

“Wait, is this okay?” Heather asked, jerking her hand away. “You said you didn’t like people touching you before.”

Veronica hesitated. “It’s fine,” she replied. “I know who’s doing it. Besides, we’ve touched each other a lot more than this.”

She shot a smirk to Heather, who fluttered her lashes and took a moment to recover from the remark. She saw her pupils dilate again, and Veronica caught that same scent that made her body warm.

“Okay, uh, bathroom,” she blurted out, to which Heather guided her to a door labelled ‘staff only’. Veronica shot her a weird look, but let herself be led to a restroom that had a total of two stalls. “Are we allowed in here?”

“Technically no, but Heather always tells me to use this bathroom instead of the other ones, so technically I have staff permission.”

“Ah. Fair.” She awkwardly shuffled to one of the stalls. “I’ll… yeah. I’ll be right back.”

Veronica locked the door and did actually end up doing her business, even though she hadn’t really needed the bathroom to begin with. What she did need was an escape from her brain constantly switching to her horny self, and so she pulled out her phone for a distraction. It was a surprise she hadn’t yet looked at it, despite having been at the bar for a while now, as shown by JD’s first message of his stream of texts being sent forty minutes ago.

_ 10:10 _

**mariana trench:** ayo text me when you’re at the bar. or don’t i don’t care about u xoxo

_ 10:18 _

**mariana trench:** i did not mean that i legit care about u please forgive me. also are you safe or what

_ 10:23 _

**mariana trench:** veronica i am begging you please don’t make me call the cops. not that they’ll do anything. fuck cops lol.

_ 10:34 _

**mariana trench:** veronica you not looking at your phone for half an hour isn’t like you i am actually worried

Whoops. Perhaps she should have looked at her phone sooner.

_ 10:56 _

**touch-starved bi:** god sorry i actually did forget to look at my phone

**touch-starved bi:** hi i am safe my night’s going good so far

**mariana trench:** SHE SPEAKS

**mariana trench:** lmao having fun on ur date ;))) not even looking at your phone to distract yourself huh

Veronica rolled her eyes.

**touch-starved bi:** heather and i were bonding over asd symptoms so you know, as far as dates go this one’s gone really well

**mariana trench:** wow you’re actually enjoying a date? I think heather cracked you

Veronica frowned.

**touch-starved bi:** i don’t need to be cracked, dates just don’t interest me, is that such a crime?

**mariana trench:** usually i’d be a big advocate for what you just said as i am literally aromantic but not only are you not on the aromantic spectrum, you actually do like closeness and romance

Veronica had to take a moment to come up with a response.

**touch-starved bi:** hey jd fuck you i was only messaging you because i’m getting horny and i needed a distraction as to not give off a horny scent in the middle of a bar i did not ask to be analysed

**mariana trench:** <3 find a stall and fuck her then

Veronica knew he was joking, she knew he didn’t really mean what he said, but his words still hit her. She shoved her phone back into her pocket and finished up, though not before feeling a familiar itching sensation along her neck and a tingling sensation between her thighs. For fuck’s sake, the distraction didn’t even  _ work. _

Deciding she had been hiding in the stall for too long, she flushed the toilet and exited the stall, washing her hands and finally looking at Heather, who was also busy on her phone. She looked up just as Veronica began to itch again, and while she offered a friendly smile, Veronica could catch her scent much easier now that they were alone in a small bathroom, and something had definitely changed. She had to give her credit, she was very good at hiding what mood she was in, since when she spoke, her voice didn’t waver at any point.

“You okay?” she asked. Veronica cleared her throat and nodded.

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

Heather eyes wandered over her, causing a hot flush to pass through her body.

“Are you still in heat?” she asked. Veronica sighed.

“Is it obvious?”

“Not as much as last time, but I can still sense it.” Heather chuckled, tilting her head slightly, “Do you need to sit down and cool off, or go home?”

“Hm? No, no, I don’t wanna cut our date short,” Veronica said, walking towards her. “It’s… it’s not too bad, don’t worry about it.” The closer she got, the stronger her scent, and the warmer Veronica felt, as well as her skin tingling more.

“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

“I’m sure,” Veronica said. “Sorry, my mind just kinda… wandered.”

Heather raised a brow curiously. “Wandered where?"

“Um…” She scratched the back of her neck. “I don’t know. You’re attractive.”

Heather snickered, and while her tone remained friendly, something had definitely changed in her gaze, something that went right through Veronica, her whole body shuddering from the hunger that darkened her eyes. Or perhaps that was the way her pupils had grown again, where Veronica struggled to find her speckled irises. It drew her closer, despite her better judgement that told her she could still hear the chattering of voices from the bar along with what sounded like  _ Lovegame _ shaking the walls, that they were in public, that they could be caught, even with the advantage of being in a staff bathroom, because Heather’s scent was sweet and entrancing, and the fact the she had turned her head away to expose her neck further was enough to lure her in.

Veronica chastly pressed her nose against her scent glands, where she could inhale that honey-like scent that, for those blissful moments, convinced her that eating a whole jar of honey would not only be easy, but enjoyable. She pressed her cheek against her neck, purring at how warm she was against her skin. Hands landed on her hips and pulled her closer, to which she groaned and began to nip at her skin, her scent so strong that she could practically taste it.

“This okay?” she murmured, and when Heather nodded, she continued, each nip growing harder. Heather’s grip on her tightened, pressing her up against her as she stumbled back against the wall, where Veronica could easily run her hands up and down her roughly without worrying about pushing her over. Her hands landed on her chest, and the wish her dress dipped further down returned with a vengeance. Her tits were soft against her palms, but the clothes were annoying and so with a growl of frustration, she grappled the back of her dress in search of the zip. When she found it, she almost tore it off with how much force she used to pull it down. Heather grunted, assisting Veronica in pulling her dress down, just far enough that Veronica could touch her breasts without being bothered by any sort of fabric. Thank goodness she wasn’t wearing a bra. She left her neck for a moment to appreciate how pretty she looked, lips parted as she panted and eyes half closed, her dolled up hair getting more ruined each time she moved against the wall. Their lips hovered closely, but they never touched, something feeling as though it was in the way, like a glass pane that Veronica knew was there, but she couldn’t see.

Her hands pulled and twisted her nipples, bringing out growls and moans from Heather, her eyes fluttered shut and her head pressed against the wall behind her. Veronica bit her lip, her whole self tingling with anticipation from the sight and the arousing smell that was growing thicker and thicker. Feeling bold, Veronica pressed a leg between Heather’s legs, groaning when she felt something hard against her thigh. A hand grappled it to hold it there, almost desperately, though Veronica knew it would be useless to stay in her current position. Grinning to herself, she shook out of her firm grasp and sank to her knees, gazing back up at Heather lustfully. She stared back down at her, chewing on her lip and spreading her legs slightly, as well as assisting Veronica by pulling up her dress. Veronica found her underwear and pulled them down her toned thighs slowly, because holy shit, Veronica had yet to get such a close look at them and they were so  _ firm _ under her palms.

She pushed her dress up further once her underwear was around her ankles, and found her erect cock that had been hiding beneath her clothes. She wrapped a hand around the shaft and moved her hand up and down, Heather falling back against the wall and moaning as she did so. Veronica’s back arched at the sight, and without even thinking, her other hand slipped under her own dress, pushing her underwear aside, and fuck, she was really wet. Not wanting to tease her for much longer, Veronica wrapped her lips around the head of her cock and took in as much as her throat would allow, hearing Heather keen as she sped up her motions. Though her head was foggy with scents and heat and the sensation of her own fingers easily gliding over her clit and she eagerly licked Heather’s dick, she was still aware of where they were, so the need to hurry it up was prevalent.

Hands in her hair tightened their grip in her hair as Heather feverishly began to thrust into her mouth, occasionally pushing her cock too far so that Veronica would gag, but she hardly minded since choking on her dick was an incredibly hot image that made her hand speed up on her own clit. She could feel herself getting close just as she felt Heather’s knot begin to grow, and Veronica listened to her moans grow louder, hearing her own name slip past her lips which made heat pool in her stomach, despite the churning that came along with it. Soon enough Heather stopped thrusting, instead holding Veronica’s head in place, her knot slipping past her lips as Veronica felt her mouth fill up with her cum. She listened to her strained moans as she came, swallowing it bit by bit as she felt herself tip over the edge, her clit burning as she rubbed her fingers against it while she moaned around Heather’s dick. When she came down, she opened her eyes to look back up at Heather, and saw her smiling loosely at her, teeth on her bottom lip. Veronica strained her jaw to release Heather’s knotted dick from her mouth, wiping her lips and panting.

“That was hot,” Heather breathed, a hand still in Veronica’s hair, playing with it. Though the scent of sex was strong and was enough for Veronica to want a round two, the softer affection made her stomach continue to church, so she subtly as she could brushed her hand off of her hair.

“Yeah,” she panted. “It was.”

As Veronica grappled the wall to lift herself back onto her feet, Heather struggled with her dress, trying to pull the zipper back up.

“Here, I’ll do it,” Veronica offered. Heather smiled with gratitude and turned around, where Veronica could pull the zip up. As she did, her knuckle brushed over the soft skin of her back. It was strange, like undressing her was fine, but dressing her again was overstepping a boundary. Her hands lingered on her zip for a few moments after the dress was securely on as she tried to process the feeling, before she stepped away, her legs weak each time she moved. At least the heat and tingling she had been feeling before was fading for good this time. Until it strikes next, that is.

“So,” Heather spoke up, combing her hair with her fingers. “Do you… want to continue the date, or…?”

Veronica froze. She hadn’t considered that part. Actually sitting back down with someone right after fucking them? She wasn’t sure if she could handle the odd pressure that came with it. Somehow it felt too close, like when you abandon hookups right after it’s a demonstration of just how close you really are. Because fucking one another is perfectly fine, but sitting down and talking about life and things is just too intimate, right?

“Yeah.” Veronica wasn’t sure why she said that, but she did. Perhaps it was out of courtesy, perhaps she didn’t want to say goodbye to Heather just yet, because it really hadn’t been that long. “After fixing up, though,” she added, hurrying to wash her hands. “And I should probably pee… again. You’re meant to do that after sex and masturbation.”

Heather giggled as she straightened up her dress. “Yeah, you should do that.”

She offered a smile to Veronica, one that was kind and intimidating at the same time. Not because she was anything like Chandler in that she was trying to be intimidating, no, it was all Veronica and how she perceived every tiny action of kindness and affection. The exact reason why she would have been so much more hesitant to say yes had she known this was a date. Despite that discomfort, though, Heather’s smile was consoling, as if it were telling her that those feelings were bullshit, only there to ruin what could be a wonderful rest of the night, and that she absolutely should try and have a wonderful rest of the night.

But with the sex part over so soon, she wasn’t entirely sure how that would commence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry this took so long but lockdown has eased in my area so i am allowed to see my gf again which means i am no longer so sexually repressed that i end up writing about pretty women knotting each other to cope. i promise i still care for this au i am just No Longer Horny
> 
> anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter !!! i think it's a little clunky but it's been sitting in my docs for at least a month i have had Enough
> 
> https://heathersgameoftag.tumblr.com/


	7. Chapter 7 - Knowing What You Want

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Chandler was actually right

"That's quite alright, thank you," Heather said as she finished up serving a customer who was most definitely hitting on her. Granted, they were fairly attractive, but she was on shift and couldn't afford to take a break as of now. Especially since when she handed over the person's drink, she noticed across the bar stand that Veronica and Heather were staring at one another intently. Veronica's eyes in particular were on one hell of a journey up and down her packmate as she squirmed in her chair. Raising a brow, Heather rested her hip against the stand and watched.

She couldn't hear what they were saying over the noise of the bar, however Veronica seemed to say something that made Heather get up from her stool and gesture for Veronica to follow, who was hesitant at first, but she eventually did. Leaving their fucking drinks all by themselves, the dumbasses. Rolling her eyes, she hurried over to the drinks before anyone could go anywhere near them and placed them under the table on her side, and with that done, she watched McNamara, hand on Veronica's arm, guide Veronica towards the staff only door. Either Heather was going to the bathroom, or they were using her permission for Heather (and Veronica, she supposed) to use the staff bathroom for a bit of extra  _ privacy, _ if you will. Irritated, she glanced at her watch and saw that they were less than an hour into this fucking date, so they better not be fucking  _ already. _

"You seem tense, love." A guest hovering by the bar commented. "You find out your crush isn't single?"

Heather knew where the guy  _ wanted _ the conversation to lead, but she currently wasn't interested. "No, I'm watching my dumbass packmate drool over an emotionally unavailable beta." She turned to him and saw that even though she steered the conversation away from where he clearly intended, he was polite enough to keep listening as he drank his beer. "The beta's attractive enough, I suppose, but dating her is a whole other story. She clearly wants to try and court her, meanwhile the beta in question clearly doesn't know what the hell she wants."

The man nodded. "Why's she so interested in a plain old beta anyway?"

"Beats me." She drummed her nails against the wooden surface. “Guess I’ll have to see what happens.”

Though, that statement was difficult to stand by when the pair of them were gone for longer than one would for a bathroom break. She knew that it was none of their business what they were doing, but curiosity was killing her, so with one last look around the bar to check if no one was waiting to be served, she slipped away and made her way down the small corridor that led to the staff bathroom, each footstep as gentle as can be as to not alert them with the sound of heels. She never made it right outside the restroom, though, because before she could, she picked up on a strong,  _ incredibly alluring _ scent that she knew all too well, or at least, some of it. Intertwined with it was a more unfamiliar scent of who she could only assume was Veronica, who smelled similar to strong scented flowers, like lavender. The urge to walk towards it was overwhelming, she even took a few more steps, before she remembered to simply cover her nose with her hand. It didn’t entirely stop the scent, but it was something.

Taking a moment to clear her head of any explicit thoughts she may have gained, any sort of arousal she felt was pushed down in favour of the bitter thought that, oh, they really were doing this less than an hour into the date, huh?

She slowly made her way back to the bar, not making any sound as she did so, and as soon as she entered the room again, she was hit with a blend of scents that distracted her from what she had just breathed in, to her relief. Once she was back behind the bar and went to mix somebody’s drink, she was able to pull her phone out and type,

_ 11:07 _

**cherry bomb:** should have betted on how long it would take for this to happen.

She put her phone in her pocket for a total of ten seconds before it vibrated again.

**Fine Fescue:** I am begging you to stop vaguing in the group chat when only me and Mac can see what you’re saying.

**cherry bomb:** no <3

**Fine Fescue:** Please just say what happened.

**cherry bomb:** mac will explain everything when she’s done

She put her phone away and paced around her station, as she tended to do when waiting for more orders to come in. A few more did, and once she finished all of those, she felt her phone vibrate.

_ 11:18 _

**Sunshineheart:** Question: how did you know

**Fine Fescue:** I am looking

**cherry bomb:** you make it obvious

**Sunshineheart:** We could have been going to the bathroom??? Which we actually were???

**Fine Fescue:** Ah I See Now

**cherry bomb:** bitch you left your drinks. i made that for you. i had to hide them behind the counter.

**Sunshineheart:** I’M COMING BACK FOR IT also thank you for hiding them

**Sunshineheart:** Also Veronica’s finished in the bathroom so I’m coming back now please don’t make fun of us

**Fine Fescue:** Why would you bang in a bar restroom those places are nasty :/

Heather put her phone away just in time to look up, seeing Veronica and Mac returning from the staff only hallway, looking ever so slightly disheveled, but not enough for anyone to guess what had happened, only enough for her to pick up on. As they walked back, Mac glared at her and flipped her off, likely due to the look Heather was giving them both as they walked back to their seats. Heather just rolled her eyes, before walking over and placing their drinks back on the counter, with the hand holding Veronica’s slamming down a little harder than she intended. Had Veronica sat down a second earlier, she would have been splashed, but no, a sticky table will have to do for now.

“You two were gone for a while,” Heather commented, eyeing the two of them, though her gaze lingered on Veronica, who shrank a little under it.

“Yeah, we needed a break from the noise,” Veronica muttered, averting her gaze from Heather, whilst Mac just deadpanned at her, clearly not wanting her to imply that she knew exactly what just happened.

“Fair enough. Just don’t leave your drinks by themselves next time, I’m not always looking in your direction, you know,” she said, despite herself.

“Yeah, sorry, we forgot,” Mac said. “Thanks, Heather.”

“You’re welcome.” She gave one last look at Veronica, this time catching her gaze, and stared her down for as long as she could without Mac getting suspicious of her gaining an attitude, before finally turning back around and leaving them alone.

She wasn’t done with her yet, but for Mac’s sake, her own feelings would have to wait.

* * *

It had been several hours when Veronica realised just how late it was. It was the early hours of the morning, and she only thought to check due to yawning becoming a consistent thing with her and Heather growing concerned that she was going to fall asleep. Also, she did have a shift the next day and she didn’t feel like sleeping until twelve to recover from a possible hangover, so at around 3am, they agreed on calling an uber home, just after they finished the last of their drinks. As Veronica watched Heather pull up the uber app, she reminisced on the night, which she hadn’t expected to be so so enjoyable, you know,  _ post _ sex, but it somehow had. The two of them loosened up after a fair bit of alcohol and Veronica found herself caring less about saying the right thing all the time, not that Heather particularly minded anyway, which she appreciated. Oh, and they exchanged numbers. That was fun.

Though, while she thought about how Heather had made her cry with laughter after making some joke about what a ‘fleshie’ would look like, i.e, like an animal on all fours but with human skin, she realised how tightly she was crossing her legs and, oh, she really needed to pee again.

“Okay! There should be an uber in about five minutes,” Heather said, hopping off her stool. “We better go wait outside so we don’t miss it.”

“Uh, um, I really need the bathroom,” Veronica said with a grimace. “Sorry, bad timing.”

“Oh, um, will you be long?”

“No, I just need to pee.”

“Okay, uh, we should be able to-”

“It’s fine, I’ll go with Veronica, you wait outside.” Chandler’s voice made Veronica leap off her seat in surprise, though she wasn’t anywhere near as surprised by that than her making what seemed like a kind favour. She remained a little suspicious, but in her tipsy state, she found it hard to care about what her intentions may be.

“Are you sure?” Heather asked.

“Yeah. You’ll panic about missing your uber otherwise,” Chandler said with an eye roll. “Go on.” She gestured for Heather to go, to which Heather planted a kiss on her cheek and left them alone, giving Veronica a reassuring smile as she walked past her. Veronica felt herself slightly comforted by that, though when she looked back towards Chandler, she felt herself grow on edge again. Chandler didn’t pay any heed to that, though, that is if she noticed, because she simply snapped her fingers and gestured towards the direction of the staff bathroom, before taking the lead. Veronica contemplated, as she followed her, if there was something deeper to that - did she always feel the need to take on every lead role ever to assert her dominance, or if it was just a coincidence. She was willing to bet the former, due to every other impression she’d gotten from her so far.

She was surprised that she was so calm on the way to the bathroom. Especially considering their last interaction, she half expected her to begin gnashing her fucking teeth at her for no good reason. But no, she just stopped outside the restroom door, and folded her arms, patiently waiting for her to go inside. Veronica cautiously walked past her and awkwardly smiled, and proceeded to quickly do her business as to, one, not keep Heather waiting outside, and two, not to spend any more time alone with Chandler. She finished up and washed her hands, and outside Chandler was still waiting calmly.

“Thanks,” she grunted, about to hurry back down the corridor, when an arm was thrown in front of her, blocking her path. She stumbled backwards, having come close to touching it, and shot Chandler a confused look. “Excuse me?”

“What do you want, Veronica?” Chandler said calmly, looking at her with a relaxed gaze. Veronica frowned and her brow furrowed, not even in confusion, but just because she was already fed up with her antics. Of  _ course _ she wasn’t just gonna let her pee and leave without a care in the world, it was never that easy with her.

“I want you to let me leave the bar,” she replied dryly. She’d been avoiding her gaze thus far, but now that she had alcohol in her system, she let herself snap and stare back at her with an irritated sneer.

“Not what I mean.” Heather finally dropped her arm when it became apparent that Veronica wasn’t going to make a run for it, even though she probably should have, but she didn’t want to back down. “Tell me, last time I confronted you, what did you say to me?”

“Huh?” She stared at her, dumbfounded. She knew what interaction she was referring to, but it’s not like she could accurately guess which thing she’s thinking about.  _ A lot _ of things are said in a conversation. “I… I don’t-”

“You told me, to sooth my nerves, that you weren’t interested in dating,” Heather whipped around towards her and snarled, her demeanor switching to a dangerous one. Veronica no longer felt confident staring her down, and instead stepped away from her, lowering her head in an embarrassingly submissive manner. “You said you didn’t do dating, you didn’t do feelings, you didn’t do  _ packs. _ That was, what, a few days ago? And yet here you are, on a date with one of my packmates who, for your information, definitely likes you.” She stalked closer to her, her gaze narrowing and lip curling. Her pupils were small, they might as well have been slits. “So what is it, Sawyer? What do you want?”

Veronica found herself lost for words. She thought it would be easy to argue back, to dismiss some entitled alpha’s worries as being entitled and over the top, but when she tried to come up with an answer, nothing came to mind.

“I…” she hesitated. “I don’t know.”

Heather’s nose wrinkled. “I told you to not fuck with her feelings, but you just didn’t listen.”

“No, that’s not what I-”

“Where does dating lead, Veronica?”

Veronica paused, this time an answer coming to her straight away, but she had to swallow dryly before saying it.

“Courting.”

“Is that something that you want?”

“I…” Veronica wished she could say something akin to “yes” to just end this conversation early, but the very thought of saying it made her squirm with discomfort. “Well… no, but-”

“So why are you  _ here? _ What are you  _ after, _ exactly?" Her eyes narrowed. "Because if you're here for sex, then come for the sex instead of lifting my girlfriend's hopes up about a romance you don't want."

Veronica snapped her head up at her and growled. “Why do I have to  _ know? _ So I’m a little unsure where I wanna go with this right now, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy myself tonight, or that I want to do it again.”

“You don’t have to know.”

“Are you sure? Because you’re making it sound as if that’s a fucking requirement.”

For a moment, Heather actually paused. Not because Veronica managed to stump her, but because she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and breathed out, her tension melting away from her. It was an odd sight to see, her with a more relaxed expression and a calm gaze that Veronica actually felt comfortable looking at, even if she still felt unnerved.

“Veronica, it’s not that you’re not sure what you want, it’s that you’re sure of what you  _ don’t _ want and not what you  _ do _ want,” she said, her voice more monotone. Her head tilted slightly. “You seem so sure about not wanting a relationship, and as soon as I ask you if you  _ do _ want a relationship, you’re hesitant to answer.” She stepped closer, but it wasn’t so threatening that Veronica felt the need to move away. “If you ask me, you’re trying to convince yourself that you want to date Heather, when in reality you don’t feel ready for a relationship at all. And if you keep the lie up that you want to keep going, you’re going to end up hurting her in the process.” She let out a disgruntled sigh. “Look, I get it, you think I’m a bitch who’s being way too protective of my girlfriends. You’re not alone on that - they think the same thing. But I’m still their pack leader, and it’s my job to make sure nothing hurts them, and that includes you.”

Veronica was at a loss for words, because somehow, Heather had hit the nail on the head. She had no idea how - the bitch hardly knew her in comparison to Heather or Heather. But she couldn’t bring herself to deny a single thing that she had said, because as much as Veronica  _ wanted _ to be okay with dating Heather, there was still a nagging voice at the back of her head to make an escape before she got too deep, it had been going on and on all night, despite having had a good time.

She realised she hadn’t responded in a while, which made Heather speak again.

“I know that I can be mean, and I get that it comes off as harsh, but what can I say, I like to get my point across.” She looked her up and down. “You gonna say something?”

“Um…” Veronica stammered, searching for her words, only to be interrupted by the door further down the hallway swinging open.

“Guys, our uber’s outside waiting!” McNamara exclaimed, gesturing for Veronica to follow. “Come on, I don’t like keeping workers waiting, especially this late.”

The corner of Veronica’s mouth picked up and she nodded, shooting one last uncertain glance at Chandler, who just raised a brow at her, as if to ask what her next move would be. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to know until after the fact.

“Coming now,” Veronica said, hurrying back towards McNamara, who led her through the bar and back outside, where a car was waiting. Veronica felt a little bad, she couldn’t be sure how long it had been there for, but the driver didn’t seem too bothered when she hopped in the back seat.

The car ride home was silent, with Veronica keeping her eyes glued to the window. She imagined Heather just assumed she was tired and wasn’t in the mood to talk, but in reality, she couldn’t bear to throw another smile her way, in fear that it would dig her hole deeper.

They were at their building soon enough, and they thanked their driver and hopped out. The walk to the elevator was silent, and it wasn’t until they stepped onto their floor did Heather finally speak.

“I really enjoyed myself tonight,” she said with a smile that pained Veronica to look at. “You’re a lot of fun, Veronica.”

Veronica swallowed and chuckled nervously. “Thanks. So are you.” She rubbed her hands vigorously together, her motions speeding up more and more. “Um… I enjoyed myself too, considering I…” She bit her lip.

“You...?” Heather prompted, looking confused. Veronica averted her eyes.

“So, I, um, I didn’t actually know this was going to be a date,” Veronica confessed, wincing as she did so. She dared not look up to see Heather’s reactions. “I thought you literally just wanted to go out, which is why I said yes with no hesitation.”

Heather took a moment to respond.

“You mean, you wouldn’t have said yes if you knew?” Her chippy tone faltered a bit.

“I… I would have been  _ less likely _ to say yes.” She clicked her tongue and realised, when she finally looked up and saw that Heather’s smile had disappeared, that she should clarify something. “It’s not because I don’t like you! It’s nothing to do with you at all, I promise. Like I said, I enjoyed myself. I tend to not enjoy dates.”

Heather frowned. “But…?”

Veronica frowned too. “...But, I just… it’s all me, not you, but I don’t think I’m ready to… go anywhere with this.” She shuffled a little further from her, her hands still sliding over one another anxiously. “Don’t… don’t blame yourself or anything, I just… it’s a lot for me, and that’s my fault, not yours.”

She offered a bittersweet smile to her, and while Heather attempted to return it, she failed miserably. Veronica wasn’t great at emotions, but she could tell that she was definitely hurt to some extent, and she felt awful.

“That’s alright,” Heather finally said, her voice quiet. “I’m glad you had a nice time too.” She stepped away from her too. “Um… we can just remain friends, then?”

“Yeah…” Veronica regrettably nodded. “Friends.”

Heather bit her lip, before stepping away again. “Well, I hope you sleep well, Veronica.”

“You too.” Veronica began to turn towards her dorm room. “I’ll see you around.”

“See you.”

As soon as Heather turned away, Veronica rushed towards her room, having to remind herself not to make so much noise when entering the dorm. She quietly shut the door, and it was a good thing she did, because she found JD and Betty sleeping soundly on the couch, a loose nest formed around them both with empty snack bowls on the table and the TV playing at a low volume. Tutting to herself, she pressed the remote and turned the TV off, before sneaking to her room. She tore her clothes off and replaced them with nothing but an oversized shirt, and flopped face first onto her bed and let out a groan into her pillow. She thought she had managed to enter the house unnoticed up until then, because after she stopped groaning, she heard her door open. She didn’t bother looking up to see who it was, just flung her duvet over her in an attempt to show she didn’t want to be disturbed.

“How’s the lovebird doing?”

“Go away, JD.”

She felt her mattress sink. Goddammit.

“So, not well?”

Veronica didn’t respond. She thought she would still be a little pissed at him for unintentionally offending her over text earlier, but when she looked up to see him softly gazing at her, no mischief visible, she only felt comforted. Sighing, she sat up, wrapping her blanket around her and holding it close.

“Hey, Jason?” she asked, her voice meek. His eyes widened a little by the use of his first name.

“Yeah?”

She bit her lip.

“Why am I so bad with people?”

He seemed a little taken aback by that. “I mean… you’re not the  _ worst. _ ”

“Just be honest. Please.”

“Um… because you have a lot of boundaries,” JD said. “Which isn’t a bad thing - everyone has boundaries, and we can have as many as we want. But with you, it’s kinda like… you have a lot, but you constantly let people cross them, and then get mad that they crossed them.”

Veronica bit the inside of her cheek. “Do I do that with you?”

“Yeah.”   


“Can you give me an example?”

“Uh… like when I offered for you to join Martha, Betty and I in Martha’s nest, and you said sure, but when we actually made physical contact with you, you immediately backed out.”

“You know I get wary about people touching me.”

“Yeah, and that’s fine, but I warned you that cuddling in a nest is inevitable. That’s kinda what omegas make them for.”

Veronica nodded slowly. “Okay.” She hugged her blanket closer. “Anything else?”

“Probably, but it’s half three in the morning, as if I can think of anything.” He tucked his legs onto the bed and tilted his head. “Why?”

“Um… dunno, just…” Veronica shrugged. “Stuff happened.”

“Should I ask?”

“Not right now.” She stared at her hands. “I guess I’m just not good at romance, since I’d have to be good with people for that, right?”

“Veronica, it’s early hours in the morning and I am  _ aromantic, _ you think I have good dating advice for you?”

Veronica snickered at that. “No, you’re pretty useless in that regard.” She lowered her head sheepishly, fingers pressing against the soft fabric of her bed sheets. “Hey, um, I know I don’t usually ask for things like this, but… can I nest with you tonight?”

JD’s eyes caught more light as they widened in surprise.

“So long as you don’t kick me in your sleep.”

“I think I’m far too tired for that,” she said with a yawn.

“Okay, well, if I’m gonna nest with you, either you come to my room or you actually  _ make _ a nest.”

“What are you talking about? This is pretty much a nest.” She gestured to her row of pillows and crumpled bed sheets, to which JD scoffed and stood up, gesturing for Veronica to follow.

“Come with me.”

Veronica rolled her eyes but followed him anyway, both of them being careful to not wake Betty as they entered JD’s room. It was a mess, of course, with clothes all over the floor and dishes on the tables that needed to be washed at some point, but his bed, admittedly, looked incredibly comfortable. Blankets were folded in a way that they formed a circle next to the headboard, with pillows leaning against it from all angles, forming a semi-circle. The duvet was open and ready to be crawled under, and where it was unfolded, Veronica saw how he had bundled his clothes in the same shape as the rest of the nest, forming a sort of dip to fall into. It was a little daunting - omega nests always were, they were so  _ structured, _ but Veronica was exhausted and her lids were heavy and she couldn’t care less about being too comfortable in someone else’s bed. She trusted JD, so when they lay next to one another and he flung the duvet on them both, she felt herself practically melt into a slumber.

Not before she noticed JD nuzzle into the crook of her neck though, but she hardly minded. She was used to affection from him, and right now, it was very welcoming, especially considering the affection that she may have lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me writing Chandler being more capable of keeping relationships than Veronica: 🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮😳😳😳
> 
> this isn't the end i promise veronica just has a lot of issues
> 
> https://heathersgameoftag.tumblr.com/


	8. Chapter 8 - Case of the Horny Hives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of last night's date hits, as does something else.

Waking up surrounded by JD’s scent wasn’t something Veronica expected, even though she should have. Her eyes remained closed as she rolled around in his bed, not bumping into him implying that he’d already gotten up. She found herself grappling onto random pillows and sheets that felt soft against her skin. It felt like any heat that had built up over night was being released, like the fabrics were absorbing it and somehow staying at the perfect temperature. She could lie there for hours.

Except, she couldn’t, because she had a shift today.

In a panic she shot up and scrambled around for her phone, only to realise that she hadn’t brought her phone with her. She leapt out of bed and ran out of JD’s room and towards her own, found her phone and sighed in relief, seeing it was only 10am. She had three hours. Once the relief died down, she grew annoyed. She could have had at least another hour sleeping in, but there was little point in returning to bed now that she was up.

Deciding first and foremost that she should shower, she grabbed her towels and made her way to the bathroom, and on her way there, the bathroom door opened, releasing steam into the room, as well as JD who was only covered by a towel wrapped around his whole self, starting from the chest. Upon seeing her, he yelped in a weirdly high pitched voice for him.

“Jesus, I didn’t know you were awake,” he said, clinging onto his towel to make sure it wouldn’t drop. “I nearly walked out with my man titties out.”

Veronica snickered. “Sorry. Just got out of bed.” She stepped out of his way so he could move down the small hallway back to his room. “And if you did, I wouldn’t care.”

“Until I get top surgery,  _ I care. _ Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

“I’d be lying if some days I just didn’t care as much.” He shrugged. “Now go have a shower, you probably smell like me.”

“Ew, gross.” It made Veronica dart into the bathroom and close the door, and as she stripped her clothes off, she heard JD ask,

“You feeling any better?”

Veronica paused for a moment.

“I think not sleeping alone helped,” she said.

“I’m glad. Wanna tell me what happened over breakfast?”

“You’re a nosy bitch, but sure I will.”

“Can’t wait.”

With that, Veronica hopped into the shower and turned the water back on, which was a big mistake, because God, JD likes his water scolding. She barked as the water hit her, jumping back and quickly turning the temperature down, and when she stepped back under the shower, she closed her eyes and allowed for her worries to drain with the water.

She’d fucked things up a little, but at least she hadn’t waited so long that it had been a complete disaster. She hated to admit it, but Chandler had been right about that.

And as guilty as she felt for letting McNamara down, she simply had to let it be. For now, there was very little she could do about it, and she could only hope that she wouldn’t bump into her in work later.

* * *

Heather kicked open the door to Chandler’s room. It was unnecessary, but it was certainly a good way to announce her presence.

“ _ Jesus! _ ” Chandler barked in annoyance. “Warn me next time.”

“What did you do?” Heather demanded, closing the door behind her. She was met with Chandler, shirtless but with a bra on, in front of a mirror and busy rubbing something into her skin. It could have been one of two things.   
“What do you mean?” She batted her lashes innocently. Heather rolled her eyes.

“Care to explain to me why Mac is so down?”

Chandler pursed her lips, slowly stepping away from the mirror but keeping her arms lifted from her sides.

“Must we do this now? I’m just trying to apply woman cream.”

“You can talk while you wait for it to dry,” Heather retorted. Chandler sighed in defeat, sitting down on the edge of her bed and facing her.

“Okay. What do you want to know?”

“You did  _ something, _ ” Heather accused. “Even after both of us told you that we can take care of ourselves, I am  _ sure _ you did something to chase Veronica off.”

Chandler rolled her eyes. “I didn’t chase her off.”

“Then what did you do?” She stalked towards her.

“I just… had a  _ word _ with her.”

“That means you chased her off.”

“It doesn’t!” Chandler argued. “Look, all I said was that I was pretty sure she was trying to convince herself that she was into the idea of dating, when in actuality she isn’t. It was just on observation - I wasn’t too abrasive about it. It’s not my fault if Veronica didn’t want to face that and ran off.”

“Well, that explains a lot,” Heather sighed. “Heather told me Veronica said that she  _ wasn’t ready to go anywhere _ with the whole dating thing.” She scowled at her. “So that  _ was _ your doing?”

“It wasn’t  _ my _ doing, it was Veronica’s problem that  _ I _ so diligently pointed out for her.” She almost crossed her arms indignantly, only to remember her hormones were still clinging to her skin. “It’s not my fault that girl is emotionally stunted in relationships, so quit blaming me for it.”

Whether that was true or not, Heather wasn’t too bothered. More than anything, she was irritated by how Heather had purposely gone against their wishes and deterred Veronica away rather than let the relationship take its course. They weren’t  _ children, _ they didn’t need a guardian to watch over them.

“Well,  _ I’m _ going to comfort Mac about her loss of a possible partner.  _ You _ are going to sit here and think about what you’ve done.”

Chandler frowned, her bottom lip poking out in a disgruntled fashion. “But I wanted to go out today. I have sweet pastry cravings.”

“Go out later then.”

With that, Heather turned around and shut the door behind her, before making her way over to Mac’s bedroom. She clicked open the door gently and closed it just as well, and quietly made her way over to her bed, where she was lying and fidgeting with one of her stuffed animals. It looked like she had attempted to create a nest, a tight one at that, with how she had left little space for herself by placing her pillows around her in a small semi-circle, her blankets bunched up on the other end, covering most of her. But it was messy and not very well structured, so definitely a half-arsed job.

“Do you need cuddles?” Heather asked, keeping her voice low as to not startle her, holding her arms out a little. Mac lifted her head and offered a half smile, shuffling over to make a bit of space for her. There wasn’t much due to the structure of the nest, which gave Heather another idea. “First, I think I should help you with this nest.”

“It’s fine, Heather,” Mac told her.

“No it isn’t. If I hop in here, it’s gonna fall apart and pillows will go everywhere.” She nodded to the pillows piled on one another. “Come on, let me do it.”

Mac pouted, resting her chin on her pillows, before giving in and getting up, keeping one blanket wrapped around her. Heather quickly got to work, knowing she was clearly desperate to lie back down, so her nest wasn’t as neat as she would have liked, but at least it wouldn’t fall apart. She formed a similar structure to the first one, with the pillows still in that semi-circle shape, only this time the ones that weren’t against the headboard weren’t in a pile so they wouldn’t tip over. She formed a slope-like structure with the ones that were and bunches some blankets around the sides, with one particularly fluffy one in the middle, ready to lie on. Heather hopped in, purring at her own work, before gesturing for Mac to follow. She did, and ended up using her as a pillow more than the many available. Heather sighed into the crook of her alpha’s neck.

“Are you feeling any better?”

“Mmm.” Mac shrugged. “I’ll get over it.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Heather muttered. “Heather shouldn’t have stuck her nose in your business-”

“She was just looking out for me,” Mac murmured.

“You’re a big girl. You can handle relationship drama.”

“She was trying to save me from the stress. You know I don’t deal well with conflict in relationships. I’d rather them be blunt, I can’t pick up on the signals.” She curled up slightly, dragging the duvet further over her. “Besides, Heather turned out to be right. Veronica wasn’t ready for a relationship with me.”

“ _ Or _ Heather planted a seed of doubt in her head.”

“I don’t know…”

“Heather. You shouldn’t give up on Veronica just because Heather thinks she’s suspicious,” Heather grunted, looking up at her to give her a glare. “Maybe Veronica  _ isn’t _ ready, but you said your date went well, didn’t you?”

“Well… yeah, we had a lot of fun…”

“So how about you two just take it slow for now? If she ends up saying no again, then sure, leave it, but you can still be friends, and maybe…” She ran a finger along her jawline. “See where it goes, hm?”

Some of the light returned to Mac’s hazel gaze. She smiled.

“I could do that…” She pursed her lips. “I just… hope she still wants to be friends?”

“I’m sure she will!”

“Talking to her again just might be awkward.”

“Maybe, but you gotta push past that.”

“I guess.” Mac let out a sigh, snuggling closer to Heather and letting her breathing lighten as she began to relax in the comfort of the nest. The sensations were able to bring a few quiet purrs out of her, which was nice for Heather to hear, only for it to be interrupted by knocking on the door. At least it wasn’t loud, but it still made Heather glare at the closed door in irritation, while Mac just winced.

“ _ What? _ ” Heather groaned.

“Um… I’m going out. Do either of you want anything?” Chandler asked timidly. “Like… a muffin or cookies? Anything you want.”

Heather rolled her eyes at her flimsy attempt to make amends.

“No, I’m good,” she replied dryly, though it was a lie. She wouldn’t have minded a chocolate muffin or coffee cake.

“I’ll have a brownie?” Mac asked, her voice devoid of her usual enthusiasm. She could almost sense Chandler wincing on the other side of the door.

“Sure. I’ll be back in a bit.”

They both listened to her footsteps leave the dorm, before relaxing into each other’s arms.

Heather knew Chandler only did it out of concern, and maybe she had a point somewhere, but right now, all Heather cared about is taking care of her dejected girlfriend.

* * *

“Aw, Ronnie, I’m so sorry it didn’t go well,” Martha cooed soothingly, patting her on the back. Veronica sighed, shuffling away from her hand.

“Don’t worry about it. Dating has never been my thing, I’m not torn up about it.”

Veronica wanted to believe that, but she had noticed herself staring at the door a little more than usual, hoping that a familiar face framed with golden hair would step into the store. Every time the door opened she would look, and every time it would be a stranger and she would visibly deflate. She hoped Martha wouldn’t notice; she was a sweetheart and if she picked up on her vague sadness, she’d for sure question her.

“Well, feel free to steal a pastry or too if you’re feeling down,” Martha said. Veronica smiled.

“I don’t think you have authority to say that.”

“No, but Pauline likes me. She won’t mind if I told you to do it.”

“In that case…” Veronica glanced at the treats, her stomach rumbling as she did so. She had skipped lunch, so the warm, sweet smells hitting her nostrils made stealing a treat tempting. Besides, she definitely earned it along with her lack of good pay that she got every month. She reached forward and grabbed a blueberry muffin, not caring if any customers were watching her perform an unprofessional act. She took a bite, distracted from the door opening for the first time in her shift, until,

“That’s not a very sound business practice.”

Hearing the low voice from across the counter made Veronica cough while trying to swallow, and when she actually did, she looked up to glare at her.

“What do you want?”

Chandler blinked at her. “I’ll take a cinnamon latte with almond milk and whipped cre-”

“Did you come here to drill more shit into me?” Veronica snapped. “I did what you said and rejected Heather. I don’t know what more you could want.” She was already beginning to feel heated by her presence. “You could at the very least leave me alone now.”

“Veronica? Are you okay?” Martha asked, stepping forward. Veronica gestured for her to stay back.

“Don’t worry about it, Martha,” she grumbled. “What else could you have possibly forgotten to tell me last night?” She rested her arms on the counter exasperatedly.

Chandler frowned. “Calm your tits, I only came to order something.” She slammed her hands down on the counter, making Veronica flinch backwards. “No need to get your panties in a twist.”

“I think there  _ is _ a need,” Veronica muttered.

“What’s the problem? You were the one who made yesterday’s date your last date, not me.”

“I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for you.”

“You wouldn’t have if I wasn’t right.”

Veronica groaned, putting her muffin down on the counter. She ran her fingers through her hair and palms down the sides of her neck, trying to cool herself, though it surprised her to feel that her skin was particularly warm, much warmer than she expected. She ignored it, thinking she was just getting particularly worked up arguing with Chandler.

“What do you want?”

“I just told you that-”

“I mean, what’s your order?” She leaned on the counter again, taking deep breaths to calm down. “A cinnamon latte with almond milk and whipped cream, chocolate on top and extra marshmallows. I was feeling something simple today.”

“Simple. Sure.” She gritted her teeth. “Did you get that, Martha?”

“Yep!” Martha called from behind.

“Anything else?”

“Um… a brownie and a cherry tart.”

“To go?”  _ Please be to go. _

“Yeah.”

Internally sighing with relief, Veronica grabbed a paper bag and quickly tossed a brownie and cherry tart inside, not trying too hard to keep either of them from crumbling. Heather looked at the bag disdainfully when Veronica pushed it towards her.

“You could have been a bit more graceful.”

“So could you.”

“With what?”

“How you handled everything.”

Heather scoffed. “Oh please. It was a shove in the right direction.”

“Whether it was or wasn’t, I don’t care. The whole time I’ve met you you’ve been pushy and entitled, and I still think that part of you was just trying to maintain control over your pack rather than do what was best for them.” Veronica leaned forward a little, her nose scrunching up. Heather did the same, only it was her lip that curled slightly.

“You don’t know what it’s like to be a pack leader,  _ beta. _ ”

“Any rank can be pack leaders! Alphas just tend to be the most pushy about it,” Veronica growled back, feeling the heat up her neck grow warmer the closer she got. It was beginning to tingle. “And you’re by far the pushiest one I’ve ever met.”

“Is that so? Then it should be a damn relief that I got you to stay away from my pack, or you’d have to deal with me on a daily basis.” Veronica could smell her breath as well as her lip balm. Both were sweet, but strong. It was a mixture of spearmint and strawberry, and caused a shiver to pass along Veronica’s neck. That tingling sensation was replaced with something uncomfortable, an urge to scratch overwhelming her.

“Well, I guess you’re right about one thing, at least.” She began to scratch, at first trying to be subtle. She glanced behind her to check if Martha was almost done with her coffee, and luckily it was nearing that stage.

“ _ One _ thing? If you didn’t think I was right about anything yesterday, you wouldn’t have listened to me!”

“Yeah, well, you were still a bitch about it,” she grumbled, the itching only getting worse as Heather’s scent began to surround her. She tried to back up, but it had already drifted over the counter. The feeling of breathing it in was pleasant, even though it burned.

“I-” Heather paused to rub her nose vigorously. When her eyes opened up, Veronica saw her pupils were dilated, and she was sure her itching spread further down her body at the sight. “It doesn’t matter whether or not you think I was a bitch, I was just trying to-” She paused to shake her head like she was trying to shake something off that wouldn’t stop clinging to her. “I didn’t want to see Heather get hurt.”

Veronica wanted to respond, but she was far too distracted by the constant itching all over her body. It was that familiar sensation she had felt when she and McNamara had slept together for the first time, or when she had woken up with certain needs that had to be dealt with, but right now it was the worst it had ever felt. Not just because her skin was grating against her work clothes, but also because she could feel the sets of eyes around the cafe settling on her. One look and she realised she was at the centre of everyone’s attention, which only made the sensation worse. She let out a whine as well as a quiet, “Excuse me,” before darting out of everyone’s view, argument with Heather disregarded in favour of escaping to somewhere cool. She entered the staff bathroom and opened the window, pressing herself against the draft seeping in, and while it soothed her irritated skin slightly, it by no means stopped it.

Moments later the door opened, and Martha stepped in with a concerned look.

“Martha, I’m fine. Just go finish Heather’s order so she can go.”

“You’re not fine! Veronica, your scent is…  _ really _ strong,” Martha protested. Veronica groaned in discomfort.

“It’ll go down. I’ll… I’ll get some scent blockers from my bag, that should stop it.”

“Veronica, I think you should sit down.” She placed the toilet lid down and guided Veronica to it, which admittedly made Veronica feel a little better, but didn’t stop the uncomfortable sensations on her body. “What’s wrong? Are you having a meltdown?”

“No, no, I’m not.” She gave up trying to itch everywhere she could, realising it was no use. She simply rubbed her temples as she shifted in her seat. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Is this some sort of heat?” Martha asked, pressing her hand against her forehead. “You’re really hot.”

“I don’t know.” Her voice broke, the exhaustion from this happening over and over again overwhelming her. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Martha. It keeps happening and I keep stopping it with sex or whatever, but then it comes back again. I thought it might be an early heat, but I’ve never felt like this before.” To add to all the discomfort and humiliation she was already going through, tears started to roll down her face and the itching only grew worse. “It feels awful. It’s like I have a rash all over my body.”

“Well… rashes are fairly common in omega heats,” Martha said, crouching down to her knees to look up at Veronica. She yanked some tissue from the toilet roll and handed it to her. Veronica dabbed her tears away, even though they kept coming. “But… you’re not an omega.”

“Beta heats are different though! None of them are the same.”

“Maybe you should get this checked?” She attempted to rub her arm to console her, but it only made her itch more, and she flinched away. “If none of this is normal for you, maybe you should make sure it’s nothing else. Also, maybe a doctor can prescribe you something to ease the itching.”

Veronica sniffed. “Maybe, but… I’m a broke student, Martha, I can’t afford it.”

“My mom can help you!” she chipped. “If I say you’re a friend, she won’t charge you, or at the very least let you off easy.”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t do that-”

“My mom believes in universal healthcare, Veronica, she feels guilt for charging her patients every day. Give her this.”

“I… okay. Is she local?”

“She’s in the next town over, maybe a thirty minute drive?”

“Okay… that’s not too bad.”

“I’ll call her to see if she’s free!”

“Wait, now?” Veronica grew alert as Martha stood up and pulled out her phone from her apron pocket.

“Sure. Don’t you think you should get this checked as soon as possible?”

“It might just fade! I don’t want to waste your mother’s time-”

“If it fades, it’ll probably just come back, like you said,” Martha cut her off sternly, placing the phone next to her ear. Veronica grimaced, nervously picking at her skin as she waited for the phone call to start. “Hi, mom! It’s just me. Um, I was just wondering, do you have any free slots, by any chance? My friend is kind of… struggling with something right now, and she’s a broke student like me, so I thought maybe you could take her? Oh, today? That’s perfect! Thank you. Love you, bye!” She hung up and Veronica stared at her.

“Huh?  _ Today? _ I have work today, Martha!”

“Calm down, I’ll call Pauline and tell her an emergency came up. My mom has a slot in about an hour, so she should be able to see you at about 3pm.”

“An hour? Will I have time to get there?”

“Like I said, thirty minute drive! You have plenty of time.”

“Oh… thank you, Martha,” Veronica sighed. “I really appreciate the help.”

“It’s no problem! You better get going though, just in case traffic is bad.”

“Bad for what? Church? It’s a Sunday.”

“Better safe than sorry! Now go. I’ll text you the address.”

Veronica grunted in agreement and took off her apron. She said goodbye to Martha one last time while she busied herself with getting on the phone with Pauline, and after grabbing her bag, Veronica escaped. She still itched as she walked, not caring if she looked ridiculous due to the sensation being so distracting, and she travelled around the cafe for a minute or so before stopping in front of the last person she wanted to see right now.

“Where are you going?” Chandler asked. Veronica groaned, continuing to walk, only for Chandler to follow.

“Doctor’s appointment,” she replied dryly.

“Why? What’s wrong with you?”

“Why do you care?”

Heather shrugged. “I feel like it started up as soon as I walked in.”

“Don’t hold yourself up at such high regard.”

“Alright, rude,” Heather sneered, before relaxing. “But really, what’s up?”

“Ugh… I don’t know, that’s why I’m getting it checked.” Her phone buzzed and she quickly checked it, and saw that Martha had texted her the address. “And to avoid paying a large amount, I’m going to see Martha’s mom. She’s a doctor.”

“Oh, that’s lucky.”

“Not so much that she’s a town over, but it’s not a long drive.”

“It will be if you get the bus.”

“I have a motorcycle.”

Heather laughed. “You can’t get on a motorcycle in your state!”

Veronica stared at her. “Why not?”

“Look at you. You’re not going to stop itching anytime soon.”

“Well, I’d rather  _ not _ get on a bus where I’ll have to sit at the back and scratch myself like a dog with fleas. So, motorcycle is my best option.”

Heather gazed at her for a long moment, deep in consideration, before letting out a reluctant sigh.

“How about…  _ I _ drive you there.”

Veronica scoffed loudly. “You? Why would  _ you _ want to drive me? I’m pretty sure you’d like to never see me again.”

“Because if you get on your motorcycle and then crash because you lost your balance after trying to scratch a spot on your back you can’t reach, Heather and Heather will be very sad and never forgive me,” she explained, taking a sip of her latte. Veronica raised a brow skeptically, the way she was looking away making her feel like there was more to it.

“And…?” she prompted.

Heather’s lips twitch.

“And… Heather and Heather are mad at me, so it will be an excuse to give them some space.”

Intrigued, Veronica walked a little closer to her, which turned out to be a mistake, because her itchiness flared up again. She brought back the distance between them, but kept the conversation going.

“Why are they mad at you?”

“Why do you  _ think _ they’re mad at me? They figured out I said something to you, and they didn’t want me intervening, so now they’re- well, Heather’s definitely mad at me, but Heather’s just sad.”

“Who’s who?”

“Omega Heather is mad at me. So much so she refused to ask for a treat.” She shook the paper bag in her hand that contained the cherry tart and brownie. “She always does this! I know she only does it out of stubbornness, because as soon as we make up, she says that she really wants a cookie or whatever it was I offered to buy her that she refused.”

Veronica let out a quiet “tch”.

“Maybe she likes her forgiveness not being bought.”

“I’m not trying to buy her forgiveness!” Heather snapped. “I’m just trying to do something nice for my packmates, even if we’re in a fight.” She bit the inside of her cheek. “But also, it does make them go easy on me, so it’s a win-win.”

Veronica bit back the urge to chuckle.

“But anyway, we’re here,” Heather spoke up, nodding to their building. Veronica hadn’t realised they had gotten there so quickly. “Come on, I’ll take you to my car.”

“Don’t you have treats to give to your packmates?”

“I wasn’t going to be back for a while anyway, Heather won’t mind waiting for an overpriced brownie.”

“Overpriced?” Veronica squawked, but it was half-hearted, because it wasn’t like she disagreed. She didn’t make the prices, she simply sold the products.

Heather lead her to her car, which was a bright red Porsche that could have blinded her, and she was about to get into the passenger’s seat, only to be stopped by Heather.

“There’s… a scratching post in the back. On the middle seat. It’s for Heather and Heather, but it might be useful for you.”

Veronica blinked, intrigued by such a concept, and when hopping into the back seat, she saw a layer of fabric that had been installed onto the middle seat. She ran the back of her hand over it, and the texture was similar to the rough side of velcro. A little too hard and it would probably hurt, but when rubbing her arm against it, it was pleasant.

“Do I just sit on it, or-?”

“It’s up to you. It’s essentially just a coarse seat.”

Veronica chose to sit on it since her whole body was in need of relief right now, and when the doors both closed, the scent of Heather, as well as mingled scents of Heather and Heather, was almost suffocating. She rolled down the window in realising she was growing warmer, and luckily, Heather turned the air conditioning on in the front seat.

“Okay, where am I headed?”

“Oh. One sec.” Veronica pulled out her phone and showed Heather the text from Martha, which she entered into her own GPS. She placed the bag of sweets on the passenger’s seat and the coffee cup in a cup holder next to her and started up the car.

“So, what do you think is wrong with you?” Heather asked as they pulled out. Already Veronica was making use of the built-in scratch post.

“I thought it was an early heat, but… I don’t know. I’ve never gotten these symptoms before.”

“Hm, I thought it was a heat too.”

Veronica shot her a weird look through the mirror. “Why did you…”

“Your scent sure smells like it,” Heather grunted, using one hand to pull out some perfume to spray the car, which would likely only mask up Veronica’s scent for a short while. “But I wasn’t sure, because I’ve never known what a beta smells like in heat.”

“Well, perhaps you know, perhaps you don’t,” Veronica sighed. “Guess you’ll find out.”

“I look forward to it.”

Veronica wondered how long this car ride would remain civil, but so far, it was going surprisingly well. Just in case, though, she pulled out her phone again and sent a text to JD.

_ 2:13 _

**touch-starved bi:** skipping work to go to a doctor’s appointment…… heather c aka alpha heather is taking me so if i mysteriously disappear you know who did it.

_ 2:15 _

**mariana trenchcoat:** what the fuck

**touch-starved bi:** you read

**mariana trenchcoat:** veronica have you gone insane. is that why you’re going to the doctor.

**touch-starved bi:** yes

**mariana trenchcoat:** fr why are you going to the doctor :( should i order take out

**touch-starved bi:** got a case of the horny hives again and it’s rlly bad…… martha got an appointment for me with her mom who’s a doctor apparently

**mariana trenchcoat:** HORNY HIVES HHJDSJHFJH

**mariana trenchcoat:** also pog i’ve met her! she checked my hip after i broke it after getting railed

**touch-starved bi:** ok that’s enough i’m going to talk to heather now

She was about to put her phone down, but quickly typed another message before locking it.

**touch-starved bi:** and take out would be lovely <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg heather and veronica in a car what will they do
> 
> also sorry it's been ages again........ kinda wrote this chapter to avoid writing tag bc i'm stuck on that one rn lol
> 
> https://heathersgameoftag.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> hello !!! it's me, the TAG AU author again, back at it again with a heathers fic that isn't TAG.
> 
> i've been wanting to make an a/b/o fic for a while, but i didn't want to fall into the traps of making the dynamics creepy and weird, which is what many end up doing. i also wasn't sure what the plot would be, and tbh i'm still not, but whatever, this is absolutely going to end up being horny, so it is tagged as explicit lmaooo.
> 
> let me know what you think !! hopefully i can balance working on this as well as TAG :]
> 
> https://heathersgameoftag.tumblr.com/


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